Basic Healing Setup for Raid Clerics for RoS (Multi-Bind Method)

(Note: The following is a post I intended for clerics in my guild to outline the basic healing sequences I use when raid healing. One of the issues that comes up with some clerics is that they tend to stick to a single sequence for single-target healing and use that sequence for everything, which I find very limiting. Clerics have access to a multitude of heals, nearly all of which do not share timers, and it is important to be able to use different sequences of heals for different healing situations.)

Basic Healing Setup for Raid Clerics for RoS (Multi-Bind Method)

This is a simple healing setup for raid clerics for Ring of Scale. It requires both Level 110 and Rank 5/5 of the Mnemonic Retention AA (under the Archetype tab) for the max number of spell slots (13) as well as all the new healing spells for Ring of Scale. It is by no means an advanced setup (hence the "simple") and raid healing in general involves a lot more than this, but it should be a good start for most clerics who just use our old standard heal (Light) and want to transition to using our faster heals to increase healing output. This first post will cover the "multi-bind" method, which involves setting things up so you only have to hit a single key to cast through a spell sequence (I may cover the "manual" method that I personally use in another post). After setting this up, you will have 3 keys that you can press to cast through 3 different spell sequences (2 for single-target healing and 1 for group healing).

Spell Setup

To begin, you need to set up your spells in a particular order. The first 5 slots will be "free" in that you can put whatever you want in them. You do not have to use the spells I have chosen for these first 5 slots (though i do recommend them and will tell you why later). Slots 6-13, however, must be set up as follows:

1. Mending Splash
2. Undying Life
3. Divine Imposition
4. Ward of Assurance
5. Promised Remedy

6. Merciful Remedy
7. Spiritual Remedy
8. Graceful Remedy
9. Merciful Intervention
10. Mystical Intervention
11. Virtuous Intervention
12. Syllable of Mending
13. Word of Greater Restoration (or Word of Mending if you are not allowed to cure)

Multi-Bind Setup

Next, you'll need to open up your Options menu (Alt + O), select the Keys tab and under Spell Category choose Spell Casting from the drop-down menu. We're going to set up three sequences here. You can choose any key you want for each sequence as long as it is not already assigned to something else outside of the Spell Casting category. To check if a key is assigned to anything, you can choose All from the drop-down menu and sort by Keypress. If the key you want to use is assigned to do something like make you duck, you'll need to change the key you use to duck to use it for your casting sequence.

I have chosen 1 for Sequence 1, 2 for Sequence 2, and 3 for Sequence 3. You'll want to assign the Cast Gem commands exactly as pictured (just click on the dotted line under Keypress for each and enter 1, 2, and 3 or the substitute keys you have chosen for 1, 2, and 3). Note that for Sequence 2, you need to enter it in the Alternate column. Also, don't worry if the key shows up in red as it does here as you're entering it. That just indicates you've assigned that key to multiple commands, which would normally be a problem, but it's essential here for the multi-binds to work:

Using the Multi-Binds to Cast Spell Sequences

Once this is set up, when you press the respective key, your character will attempt to cast through the following spell sequences, prioritizing the heals listed first if they are available (meaning not on cooldown) and casting through the others if not:

Sequence 1 = Merciful Remedy -> Spiritual Remedy -> Merciful Intervention -> Mystical Intervention -> Virtuous Intervention

If you are pressing the 1 key continuously without pause (as you should be doing in most healing situations unless you need to cast something else) this results in the following sequence:

Merciful Remedy -> Spiritual Remedy -> Merciful Intervention -> Merciful Remedy -> Spiritual Remedy -> Mystical Intervention -> Merciful Remedy -> Spiritual Remedy -> Virtuous Intervention

Sequence 2 = Merciful Remedy -> Spiritual Remedy -> Graceful Remedy

If you are pressing the 2 key constantly without pause, this results in the following sequence:

Merciful Remedy -> Spiritual Remedy -> Graceful Remedy

Sequence 3 = Syllable of Mending -> Word of Greater Restoration

If you are pressing the 3 key constantly without pause, this results in the following sequence:

Syllable of Mending -> Word of Greater Restoration -> Word of Greater Restoration

So you have two sequences set up for single-target healing (1 and 2), but which should you use and when?

Sequence 2 is the "Triple Remedy" sequence. These are fast 0.5 sec heals that aren't very strong but are the fastest heals we have available. You will want to use this when healing needs are low to medium or when you have plenty of heal support (i.e. 3+ healers casting heals on a tank). This ensures that you are casting as many heals as possible in a given amount of time and decreasing the gaps in healing to the tank (or the time a heal is not landing on the tank).

Sequence 1 is the "Remedies with a Big Heal" sequence. For this sequence, you are dropping the oldest and least powerful Remedy (Graceful) and including an Intervention heal that takes 1 sec longer to cast (for a total cast time of 1.5) but heals for twice as much at the least. You will want to use this when healing needs are high or when you have low heal support (i.e. 1-2 healers on a tank or you are solo healing the tank). Keep in mind that Interventions apply a nuke to the mob your tank is targeting. Normally, this shouldn't be a problem if a tank has aggro'd the mob or DPS'd it to any extent because you are unlikely to steal aggro from the rather small damage the nuke provides (assuming it lands for anything as it is often resisted). You don't want to cast it on a tank if he's targeting mobs being mesmerized or CC'd in other ways (like being rooted) or if any damage to the mob causes it to summon and your raid leader wants them kited. Otherwise, they should be perfectly safe to cast. You might be tempted to just not use them at all to be on the "safe" side but I would dissuade you from doing that because the alternative (Renewals) are slower by .3 sec and on events where curing is detrimental, you will not be able to use Renewals so you would be stuck with Remedies and the awfully slow 2.2 cast Light if you wanted a larger heal. You might be forced not to use Interventions on certain targets if CC is an issue, but there are more situations where you can use them than those you can't, and not using them out of fear instead of learning when it is and isn't safe to use them will just hold you (and your healing output) back.

There are exceptions to these general guidelines of when to use Sequence 1 over Sequence 2, of course. If you're using the Channeling the Divine ability to automatically twincast every heal for 30 seconds, Sequence 2 may in fact be better to cast even when healing needs are high because the fact that each heal is cast twice bolsters the low heal amount of the Remedies. The same may be true with enhanced spell haste buffs from other classes.

My advice would be to stick to Sequence 2 or "Triple Remedies" until it becomes apparent that you will need the larger heals of Sequence 1 to keep the tank alive (unless you anticipate from experience that the healing needs will be high and can go with 1 to begin with). That way, you are pumping out a lot of fast heals that will keep the time a tank is without a heal to a minimum and only slowing it down and widening that gap to add larger heals when it is necessary. You can change what sequence you are casting in the middle of a sequence as well, so if you start with Sequence 2/Triple Remedies and the damage starts to ramp up, you can start casting Sequence 1/Remedies with a Big Heal and you'll start casting the larger Intervention heals when you're done casting through the Remedies.

Sequence 3 is the "Group Heal Spam" sequence. You should always use Word of Greater Restoration (2.4 sec cast time) over Word of Mending (2.7 sec cast time) unless you're not allowed to cure anything on that event. If your raid leader tells you not to cure anything, you'll be forced to use Word of Mending to avoid curing something you shouldn't. Ideally, you should avoid going completely into "Group Heal Spam" mode unless multiple people in your group are tanking and they are all in range of you or when AOE damage forces you to do so to keep the group alive. The reason is that either Word heal is slow in comparison to Remedies and Interventions, so while you are healing more people, the heals you're providing come more slowly and may not be enough to keep someone like an MT alive.

This should help you cast the right things when it comes to single-target and group heals but you need to be aggressive. For Sequence 1, for instance, you need to be constantly pressing the key even if you continue to get the "you have not recovered" message several times. This ensures that once the 1.5 sec global recast timer (the time after you cast a spell when spell gems gray out and you cannot cast another) is met, that you will immediately cast the next spell. It is very important for raid healers to heal proactively because you often won't see the damage to the tank in real time due to latency. There are plenty of times when the HP bar will appear full when in fact the tank is taking damage so don't let up as long as the tank is on aggro. If you can use GINA text triggers, Pano's Color Coded Heal Window (https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/color-coded-healer-window.247126/unread) can help you determine how many heals you're landing (and how much they are landing for), which can help you determine how much damage the tank is taking and whom you should be healing.

Why I Don't Include Undying Life in the Multi-Bind

You may have noticed that though I have Undying Life memorized, I did not include it in either single-target heal multi-bind. There's a good reason for that (though it's not one that other clerics might agree with).

Undying Life or UL (with a 0.85 cast time) is an incredibly useful spell that does three different things on each cast:

- Single-Target Heal (largest single-target base heal in the game at 51895)
- Group Heal (centered on your location and cast on your group, largest group-target base heal in the game at 23872)
- HP Buff called Undying Blessing (only on the recipient of the single-target heal, 19.3 % more HP at the highest rank of the spell) lasting around 28-ish sec.

The downsides? The mana cost is somewhat high at 8161 mana and it has a 60 sec recast timer. It also, unfortunately, was coded in such a way that most DoTs will block it from landing (including one in The Sathir Line event from this expansion). Your target also needs to have 2 buff slots free for it to land as well, though this is only an issue with SK tanks (and WAR who like to use every clicky imaginable, regardless of its usefulness, or forget to click off their shadow buffs). The HP buff can also be overwritten by other clerics casting the spell on your target which isn't a huge downside, but given the 60 sec recast timer your cleric team as a whole only has so many ULs to cast every minute and it sucks to see another overwrite yours when it hasn't been on the tank that long.

It seems so useful that you would want to cast it as frequently as possible but I would highly recommend "free casting" this separately from your other heals, meaning you shouldn't put it in a multi-bind like the ones we created above. First of all, it can be detrimental to add it to a multi-bind on some events where it is blocked due to a DoT. If you had it included as your first heal, for instance, in Sequence 1 (UL -> Remedy -> Remedy - Intervention, etc...) and your target has a DoT preventing it from landing, you'd continue to try casting UL and the sequence might become "stuck" because the spell would never cast through (meaning you'd never get a recast on it to move on to the next spell in the sequence). That *can* be worked around using an alternate bind, but the primary reason not to include it in a multi-bind, however, is that the HP Buff is so useful to tanks that you don't want multiple clerics casting it on the same target at the same time, which is likely to happen if every cleric has it included as their first heal in a sequence, nor do you want to waste it on a non-tank unless they or your group desperately needs the heal. You want to refresh it as the HP buff fades, particularly on an MT, and you want enough clerics with the spell available to cover an OT or 2.

So, you should probably assign it to a hot key with an announcement message as follows ("2" is for our cleric channel so that number may be different depending on how your chat channels are ordered):

Though this does not guarantee that the other clerics will not overwrite your cast, it at least gives them some indication that you cast it aside from the Undying Blessing icon on the tank, which is, unfortunately, a very generic icon that looks similar to several others.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't use it as a heal, though. If your tank or group is in serious danger, you should definitely consider using it to bail them out. Just use your best judgement and remember that, as long as other clerics are free casting and announcing it as well, there should be plenty of UL usages available for HP buff purposes. The bottom line is that UL is much more useful when used situationally and casting it indiscriminately robs it of much of its usefulness.

(continued below)

Spell Sets

Now that you have the sequences set up, the next thing you'll want to do is create spell sets for different healing situations. Maybe it isn't safe on a particular event to use Interventions (which casts a nuke to the mob your tank has targeted in addition to the heal) and you need to use Renewals instead. Renewals are 1.8 cast time heals that are slightly slower than Interventions. They cure certain effects off the target, though, so you'll need to be sure that you're allowed to cure on that event to use them. You don't have to create a new multi-bind setup for this, though. You just need to swap new spells in, or create a new Spell Set.

First, you'll want to save the current Spell Set. To do so, right-click on the spell book icon, choose Save Spell Set, then Add New Set:

Enter a name for it (like Base Heal Set) and click OK. Now, you can create a new set by replacing some of the spells. For Renewals, you can add them into the spell slots as follows:

1. Mending Splash
2. Undying Life
3. Divine Imposition
4. Ward of Assurance
5. Promised Remedy

6. Merciful Remedy
7. Spiritual Remedy
8. Graceful Remedy
9. Furial Renewal
10. Fervid Renewal
11. Fraught Renewal
12. Syllable of Mending
13. Word of Greater Restoration (because if you're using Renewals, it is safe to cure)

You can then save this spell set just as you did the other one and just call it something else (like Renewal Spell Set). Sequence 2 will be the same because it's just Remedies, but Sequence 1 will now cast Renewals in place of Interventions. You can also create another spell set with 2 Interventions and 1 Renewal (Furial Renewal, Merciful Intervention, Mystical Intervention) or 2 Renewals and 1 Intervention (Furial Renewal, Fervid Renewal, Merciful Intervention) as long as they occupy Slots 9-11. Just be sure to name each spell set something different.

To choose the set you want to use, right-click on the spell book icon, choose Load Spell Set, and choose the one you want to use.

Suggestions for the First 5 Spell Slots

So, earlier I mentioned that the first 5 spell slots are free but that I really recommended the spells I had chosen. I'll make a case for each one here (aside from Undying Life which was covered above) but note that clerics have many useful spells (like Elixirs) that I may substitute sometimes for things like Splash if an event doesn't have a lot of AOEs.

Mending Splash

Splash is incredibly useful on some events, particularly those involving AOEs. The cast time is pretty fast as well (about as fast as Syllable). The only downsides really are the heal amount (but this is somewhat offset by the fact that you're hitting a lot of targets with it), the aiming mechanic, and an extended recast timer (so you can't spam it). When you cast the spell, a green circle appears on your cursor that you need to aim to set a spot for the heal to land -- it will heal everyone within about 50 feet from that spot. That spot, however, must be a relatively unobstructed spot on the ground. You can't choose a spot occupied by too many players (can't put the circle on top of them) nor can you choose some spots that have portals or other objects on the ground because they aren't considered valid (you do have to test this, though, as it can be cast on some objects).

To make things easier on myself, I assign a key to Splash ("V" in the picture above), press that, then when I am ready to cast the heal, I move the green circle to my chosen spot and hit it again. About the only other thing to note with the spell is that you don't want to cast too many useless splashes. What I mean by this is, when you cast it, you want to be sure it's landing most of the time on player targets and that it's landing on a decent amount of them. Not every heal (or splash) is going to land for something all of the time and there will be duds, but if you're splashing a lot during an event and only healing swarm pets, then it's not really serving a useful function and you either need to adjust your timing or reconsider using it if the raid just doesn't need your splashing. Pano's GINA Heal Window, mentioned above, is excellent for seeing your landed heal amounts and can help you determine that.

Divine Imposition

I don't need to mention how important this one is. While it is technically possible to swap this in when you need to during an event, the short recast whenever you memorize it means that you probably should assign this permanently to one of your spell slots.

Ward of Assurance

This spell blocks a nice amount of melee damage from the first few hits (8) that land on a target. I say "target" because while it's useful for tanks, it can also be useful for other targets who need protection from melee damage (or even yourself if you find yourself in that situation). It has a 2 min recast timer, so it can also be used several times during an event. I find this very useful for tanks who I consider lower in priority. So if I have a group consisting of MT WAR, Backup MT WAR, PAL, PAL, CLR I may cast it on either of the PALs frequenstly as they are lower in priority and the protection the Ward offers to them may give me and other healers time to notice they are taking damage and assist heal if the PALs get aggro on some adds. I also use it SKs that might engage adds at any time, or on an MT if I need to re-apply DI (to make up for the lack of heals during the DI cast). Do be careful with the latter, however, as Ward will last literally 1-2 seconds on an MT taking heavy hits from a boss, and unless you use an AA or clicky heal during the global recast, you may be better off healing if you are the MT's primary healer.

Though it can be useful in an emergency against hard hitting mobs, don't wait until then to use it! By that time you are probably going to have to heal hard and won't be able to toss it in without losing some time due to the global recast timer. It is better to use the spell proactively to help deal with damage before engage when possible.

Promised Remedy

Over the past few years, with the emphasis on fast-cast heals like Remedies/Interventions/Renewals, clerics may not find our delayed heal line (Promised) very useful. It's often criticized because, compared to our direct heals which land in 0.5 - 1.8 seconds, a promised heal takes about 18-23 seconds to land and its heal total is diminished on targets who do not possess healing AAs (i.e. warriors). However, the addition of the Promised Interposition AA has added a nice (albeit small) instant heal component to these spells that has made them more useful.

So when you cast a Promised Remedy on someone, thanks to Promised Interposition you are providing them with a small 13,000 hit point heal that will land right after they take 15,000 in melee or spell damage. That's an instant heal, so it is has a very high chance of landing. You are also providing them with a 40329 heal that will land after 18-23 sec (and has the potential to land for 52311 in the unlikely event that it lands under 20% health), a heal that can crit and is focusable if the target has healing AAs. That delayed heal might seem worthless because no one wants to wait 18-23 sec for a heal and it probably won't land if everyone is focusing heals on the MT, right? Well, not always. There are plenty of events where you will need to dodge something and have to leave the tank without healing for a short while or the tank is kiting and will be in and out of direct heal range. In these cases, the delayed heal might land when it's not possible for you to deliver a direct heal. Even in other situations where you have plenty of heal support, the delayed heal provides potential healing that may not land but is there in case the tank needs it.

One thing you do have to be careful of when using Promised Remedy is the timing of the cast and its potential to be overwritten. Even though it casts relatively quickly, it's not something you want to be casting when the tank is in need of direct heals (and this is part of the reason many people block it when using mercs -- mercs don't properly time their actions and will stupidly re-apply promised heals at the wrong time). You want to find a window or block of time to cast it when the tank is not in immediate need of a direct heal. Prior to engage is always a good time to cast it, but in other situations, you'll need to have a good idea of the amount of heal support each target has and determine when you can cast it without sacrificing necessary direct healing. Equal or higher ranks of the spell overwrite each other as well, so if the delayed heal was 2 sec from triggering and another cleric casts it on your target, the target will lose your delayed heal and will have to wait another 18-23 sec for the new one. So, you do need to coordinate with other clerics and plan who will be covering whom with these heals or just watch the buff window closely to determine whether someone already has it. Even in the case of overwrites, however, the target will get another chance at the instant heal portion, so it's not a complete waste.

Healing Gear and Augs

To get the most of out of your heals, you'll want to acquire Type 3 augs (available from various vendors) to increase the base heal of every heal you use. These are the ones you will want for your direct heals (though you should consider Type 3s for every spell you actively use, including the one that lowers the recast timer slightly for Ward of Assurance). Note that there are no Type 3s for some heals:

Salus Faycite Shard: Merciful Remedy (Justyl Makalroi - The Overthere)
Salus Faycite Shard: Spiritual Remedy (Naissa Gemmarii - Katta Castrum)
Salus Faycite Shard: Graceful Remedy (Tomekeeper Kerkaz - Shard's Landing)
Salus Faycite Shard: Furial Renewal (Justyl Makalroi - The Overthere)
Salus Faycite Shard: Fervid Renewal (Naissa Gemmarii - Katta Castrum)
Salus Faycite Shard: Fraught Renewal (Tomekeeper Kerkaz - Shard's Landing)
Salus Faycite Shard: Word of Greater Restoration (Justyl Makalroi - The Overthere)

You will also want to upgrade your breastplate to the one for the current expansion when you can. I would advise saving up your raid reward coins for it as the focus (and click) on it are more valuable than most pieces of gear for our class. You should not need to upgrade your other focuses unless your gear is more than an expansion old (check to be sure the focuses on your gear cover spells up to 110), though you will eventually want better gear for survival purposes. For the ring focuses, be sure you have a beneficial mana preservation focus on one and a range focus on the other, as it is very easy to get a pair of rings with the same focus.

Also, though the casting sequences don't consume a lot of mana, the frequency with which you will be casting them may strain your mana pool the longer an event lasts. You will want to have the following augs and items to help combat this:

Any 1HB with the "Sypmathetic Invigorating Burst" proc. This gives you a small chance of receiving mana back with each heal cast.

Helping Hand aug https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=132919 This has "Sympathetic Invigorating Burst 5" on it. Note that you can put this in a 1HB with the same proc (as long as it is a different rank/number) and it will give you another chance to proc the effect.

Tome of Manipulation https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=94656 This increases your Specialize Alteration skill, which will decrease your mana expenditure. You can also look for the Anomalous Rock of Alteration http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=53372 from older content, though is it slightly worse due to the slightly lower cap.

These augs, though stat-less, are important to maintaining your mana and are well worth not having stats in that slot.

Conclusion

Hopefully this post has provided useful information and a basic healing setup that you can use to improve your healing output and effectiveness. It is by no means complete but should at least ensure that you have an effective single-target and group healing setup that will give you a better chance of keeping our tanks alive on raids.

Where is the "rez ghubuk" hotkey?

Thanks Clarisa, this is great.

My only question is on Mending Splash mechanics. Why or when would I cast a mending splash vs just ensuring the tank I am casting a direct heal on has a Shaman Alliance?

it is right there next to the ANY key. Unless of course Elvis took it when he left the building.

Warriors up to 31% heal crits with RoS AA! +33% from AE Auspice, we're in pretty good shape. It's not 52/53% base like SK/Pal have, but it's not quite the nothing it was for years.

I always appreciate your posts.

I do have a recommendation regarding the actual bind. Instead of doing the bind to the spell bar, you should bind to a hot bar. Then drag the spells to the hot bar that you want in the order you want them. You can then use the page scroll to effectively hot swap your spell casting order since each page can be different. It means you can swap from a list with interventions to a set with renewals etc without have to mem spells in a new order.

Duplicate post.

Ehh... I guess I feel like talking.

With regard to the binds again. I find doing it to hot keys to be way more flexible and superior in every way other than it uses a hot bar bank. It is also great since the binds are account wide, it means you can set one up for your alt that is also well thought out and not hindered by the optimal set up of your main.

Mending Splash can be useful when you want to provide a lot of AOE healing in the shortest amount of time with the fewest priests possible. Ancient/Divine Alliance has a lot of healing potential, but it's dependent on the efforts of several priests casting single-target heals on the target with the buff. If we assume that a raid has 12 priests (6 clerics, 3 druids, 3 shaman) and the target has Ancient Alliance (11820 hp per proc) it would take about 6 of those to generate the same healing as an average splash crit (around 70k). You can depend on a lot of priests (but not all because druids and shamans cast a lot of stuff besides direct single-target heals) healing the target when there aren't as many people to heal and their groups aren't taking too much damage. But when the raid is hit with something like:

[50740] Massive Cloud of Frailty
Target: Caster PB
AE Range: 6250'
Resist: Disease -850, Min Resist Chance: 5%, Max Resist Chance: 15%
Reflectable: No
Focusable: Yes
Casting: 0s
Duration: 60s+ (10 ticks), Dispelable: No
1: Decrease Spell Haste by 30%
2: Limit Type: Exclude Combat Skills
3: Decrease Current HP by 97777 per tick
4: Decrease Melee Haste v4 by 45% (Incremental)
5: Decrease Current HP by 153333

it's a lot more difficult for most of those priests to continue to cast single-target heals. Ancient/Divine Alliance *could* work to counter such damage itself if all 11 potential priests (because the one who cast the spell is excluded) who could proc it committed to casting single-target heals and everyone got near the boss to be within range of the proc heals, but that doesn't happen much in these situations because most priests will want to heal their groups or the raid directly and on some events, not everyone is near the boss.

Mending Splash is just a lot more useful when faced with such damage than hoping 5 other priests are doing the same thing you are (casting single-target heals) and if 2-3 clerics cast it at different intervals, you can help the raid recover more health in a shorter period of time because the proc healing will be staggered depending on the casting speed of the spells used to generate it (and among priests, only clerics can cast 0.5 sec heals continuously).

So for minor AoE damage, Ancient/Divine Alliance can be used as a primary source of AOE healing, but I don't think it works as well when you use it against major AOE damage unless you have a heal team committed to doing what is probably against their healing instincts and the raid is positioned in such a way that they are always near the tanks because while Splash can be aimed where the targets you want to heal are, the proc healing from Alliance cannot.

That's a good point and I would have described that method but I wasn't as familiar with it since I usually heal through manual casting (i.e. clicking), so this was the only method I was aware of and thought I could explain thoroughly. If I ever find the time, I will update the post with the hot bar method or maybe someone can help write something more detailed about it.

This is awesome! Thank you for such an in depth look at this mechanic/process. To see real examples of use, like how you set up your multi-binds make learning so much easier.

If you're going to employ Splash, I recommend using the Paladin trick of including it in your multibind. When the spell is ready, the targeting ring will come up without interrupting your other spell casts. The spell itself won't go out until you mouse click where it goes.

I don't like coaching clerics to use Splash because its use is only good once the cleric themselves is really good. Once they're past coaching, basically. It's disruptive, uniquely requiring that the cleric know where their healing target is in order to benefit them. It's slow; because of its free-target-ness, it's slower than even its cast time would indicate, which is already among the slowest on the spell bar (Word of Greater is slower. But I don't coach its use, either ). That means it's not competing with just one single target heal, but frequently with two.

It is, at least potentially, a legit way for the best clerics to tactically sacrifice core metrics for a powerful gain. My real experience is that 80%+ of clerics operating in even the highest level guilds gain more instead from an enhanced focus on core play; to wit, first, casting more spells, then enhancing teamwork re: alliances/undying/et al, then incorporating unused tools like instant AAs/clickies & healing "discs". Attempting to mix in Splashing before the rest is wholly covered I expect to actually be detrimental. Like "shooting the moon" in playing Bridge - it's only a good thing to try (and then only sometimes) if you have the rest of game play on lock.[/quote]

Splash does slow the rate of healing to tanks down in a technical sense, but part of being a good cleric is gauging your healing support and the rate/timing of damage to the MT and knowing when you can cast certain things. Sometimes, casting Splash is a no-brainer. If the entire raid is hit with a 100k DD and a 60k DoT and everyone is within range of the MT, it makes sense to throw a Splash because it will hit everyone at once (including the MT) and it doesn't take a lot of skill (or time) to aim the circle at your feet and cast. In other situations, I like to have clerics experiment with it and determine for themselves how effective their Splashes are and how it affects the casting of their other heals.

I disagree in general with the notion that clerics need to be past the point of coaching before they can use Splash or some of our other abilities effectively. I suppose it's just because I'm used to dealing with clerics of a certain experience level, but even when I'm helping clerics outside of my guild, I like to give them a lot of information (along with the reasoning) and encourage them to experiment and evaluate the results. Yes, their cast counts may dip while they learn to incorporate everything, and tanks may even die in the process, but I'd much rather have a cleric trying to do too much and failing and learning through those failures when/how to use *all* of their abilities than a cleric who focuses purely on healing output and doing supposedly "easier" things. It's been my experience with our cleric applicants that those who focus more on the latter tend to not move beyond that, becoming complacent with keeping their groups alive and not affecting the raid further, while the former who actually try to do more generally will continue to improve and become more "complete" clerics even if the road to getting there may be a little bumpy.

Splash:

As a wise man once said (Hi Borias!), bind that to the mouse wheel. Almost every modern mouse have a push down button on the scroll wheel that you can use in EQ without external software. It makes hitting splash and click its target really quick and efficient except when all you get is a red ring.

It's a matter of personal preference though as I do not like to have it included in the multibind or in a macro, yet I still want to splash once in a while because I like padding my numbers with soandso's pet!

/bow

Thank you for this outstanding idea! I will be implementing this tonight yet!

Tagged for later for my baby cleric

is there an "updated" guide for macros and spell rotations ?

no brand new abilities, just update with 111-115 spells

I keep meaning to update the guide but just haven't found the time. It is all still relevant, however, aside from the spells used at 115, because as Szilent mentioned, nothing new has been added since it was written (that would be included in a casting multibind, anyway). The new lineup should be:

1. Restoring Splash
2. Dissident Blessing
*3. Divine Intermediation OR Divine Imposition (see below)
*4. Ward of Righteousness OR Ward of Assurance (see below)
5. Promised Remedy OR Promised Redemption (only if all clerics are using it and have the same rank)

6. Sincere Remedy
7. Merciful Remedy
8. Spiritual Remedy
9. Sincere Intervention OR Dire Renewal
10. Merciful Intervention OR Furial Renewal
11. Mystical Intervention OR Fervid Renewal
12. Syllable of Soothing
13. Word of Greater Replenishment (or Word of Soothing if you are not allowed to cure)

*Note that some raid teams may want clerics using the same spell for these to prevent stacking/overwrite issues so some might choose to not have their clerics use the new DI spell until all clerics have the same rank of it. The reason for that is that a cleric using a lower rank of the new DI spell cannot extend DI on a target that has a higher rank DI spell on them. This might lead to a bad situation if, say, only 1 of your clerics has new DI RK 3 and the rest are using Rk 2 or 1. The cleric with RK 3 might buff an entire group with it but when those DIs have, say, 2 minutes left on them, only that cleric will be able to refresh/extend the timer on those DIs because the rest of the clerics with RK 2 or 1 will get a block when they try. To avoid this situation, some cleric teams just agree to use the same spell (even if it's the older one) to ensure that every/most clerics are able to refresh/extend DI timers without worrying about a block. Though newer/higher-rank DI spells have better heals, it's generally not worth the trouble of putting a bunch of DI recasts on a single cleric and risking a tank having to wait longer for a refresh/extension. I should say that this is not as big an issue with Ward because it has such a short duration and is consumed so fast on tanks that blocking issues are somewhat rare (but you still might want to prevent them).

The reason I recommend Promised Remedy over Promised Redemption (unless you're sure every cleric has the same rank of it) is because that's a spell you definitely want to be overwritten because Promised Interposition, the instant-heal portion granted through the AA, is refreshed every time it is cast on a target, regardless if the delayed portion has been triggered or not. There is also currently a bug that is causing the older spell, Promised Remedy, to overwrite the newer spell, Promised Redemption. So if you have some clerics using the newer spell they will not be able to overwrite Promised on clerics using the older spell, leading to that target having to wait longer for a Promised Interposition refresh. If clerics are using different ranks of the new spell, the same situation might happen with those with lower ranks being unable to overwrite those with higher. So it's better to decide as a group which spell you will be using. You do want to use the newest one you can if everyone has the same rank because the delayed heal is stronger but it does not matter for the instant Promised Interposition heal, since that is entirely dependent on the rank of the AA, meaning the older spell is as good as the newer for just that heal.

Some raid teams might not care about this and will let clerics use whatever and deal with blocks (or coordinate around them), but it's something to keep in mind and at least discuss with your team/class lead to see what spells they prefer for you to use. This is also not an issue once the expansion has been out long enough for every cleric to have upgraded spells.

I hope to have time someday to update the guide properly (the pics, etc) but hope this is good enough to help those using it in the meantime.