Best Healer for a 4th box?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by bluehealer, Nov 23, 2012.

  1. bluehealer Journeyman

    We are currently running Paladin, Wizard and enchanter. The group works great for most content, but when we run into an old raid we want to do we just don't have a standard healer. (Plus I find merc healers go wonky on heavy AEs.) So we are going to add a healer class.

    Which one is going to do best in this group? Druid of course provides new buffs for the casters, and works well with nukes for boxing. The cleric of course is going to be the best healer over all but no dps really. The shaman is kind of inbetween imo, but Unity would be nice for our tank (the puma buff won't really be used unless we change to rogue mercs instead of wizard mercs, but with chanter auras the wizard mercs provide very nice dps.)

    Any thoughts?
  2. Tarvas Redwall of Coirnav, now Drinal

    I am partial to shamans myself, but I run a ranger and nerco with him.
  3. Falos Augur

    I'd say for Paladin tank + that setup: Cleric > Shaman > druid.

    Druid does have some nice abilities that help out wizard dps and such a bit but some of those abilities will already be covered by superior ADPS options from the chanter. Shaman does have some really nice buffs and debuffs but honestly in the *group* game if you had to pick between chanter debuffs OR shaman debuffs, i'd rather just have enchanter debuffs. Shaman debuffs are better *in the raid game* but since you already have an enchanter you're losing some of the need for the abilities shamans bring to the table.

    What it comes down to primarily given the setup you already have is this:

    Clerics: Shining armor (pretty much the best buff in the game, especially for a paladin tank, spammable group heal (you can chain cast group heals, the other 2 priests cannot), Viral DS (for pulling mass agro on the cleric when you are doing older content and need to keep a bunch of trivial mobs busy the cleric can offtank a bunch of gray cons while keeping shining armor on themselves.

    Druid: worst box friendly group heals, decent debuffs that will increase your wizards dps a bit, shared wolf form to sustain paladin/wizards mana pool for quite a bit longer (enchanters do not have mana issues).

    Shaman: best long duration buff (unity), as well as a weaker version of shining armor (apathy line), Shaman cannot spam their group heal but they do make the best box healers in he game because their group heal functions like a series of mini delayed heals so you can hit your group heal and focus on your other toons for the most part unless you are fighting something with noteworthy dps and need to heal harder. Shaman almost never OOM, and thus can sustain their spell casting longer than the other two priests. Honestly though unity is a very easy buff to find in eq and you should have no problem getting other players to cast it on you. Apathy is a nice buff, but because its a defensive slow proc + heal over time recourse the healing effect on apathy is significantly weaker than shining armor from clerics, yes you can use both but if you are only boxing one priest in your group shining armor is just a hugeeeeee perk to have. It is worth noting though that, while talisman of the lion and shaman epic / melee ADPS aa's are quite nice, they won't really benefit your current setup that well considering mainly just the paladin would be benefitting from it.


    Given the setup you already have, druids offer you the least amount of utility, a major perk of a shaman is nullified by the fact that you have a chanter, and yes you can get some cleric buffs from mercs, but shining armor buff is just so amazing i'd say pick cleric here, if you struggle to box a healer it's probably slightly easier to box a shaman for heals than a cleric but if you dont mind tabbing between accounts a lot cleric has more potential for your setup.
  4. silku Augur

    I really like the idea of the shining armor. That's something I was unaware of. I had seen Apathy in action, looking forward to playing with the other. Thanks for the input :)
  5. Nolrog Augur

    IMO, anytime the question is which healer is best, the answer without question is cleric. They are by far the best healer in the game.

    In this case, some of the things the shaman would bring are already covered by the chanter (notably slow and haste.)
  6. Raluden Elder

    The cleric is a one trick pony and that trio is terrible DPS as it is.

    If you are not too far along, I'd swap that trio for a SK, mage and bard, with a shaman for the fourth and a cleric merc.
  7. Noobieguy Augur

    Keep in mind (for now anyways), that shining armor line of spells was not upgraded in RoF.
  8. Tarrin Augur

    Shining armor is % based mitigation. It does not degrade when you level up.
  9. Noobieguy Augur

    True, but the older spell's stun will most likely not work on the new mobs, and the heal portion hasn't changed.. which makes it not as good as it was at 95 since mobs will be hitting harder.
  10. silku Augur

    I don't think that trio is horrible dps, as long as the enchanter is charming. We run the exact same thing. The Wizard holds her own, and the charm pet makes up for my enchanters horrible personal dps. (Add in the Adps and 2 more wiz mercs and we do quite well.
  11. Tarrin Augur

    Shining Armor not being upgraded, is still a bigger buff imo that what the two other priests get at 100.
  12. Falos Augur

    The stun on shining armor was never really the main perk of the buff.. well except when you grouped the cleric with a necro i suppose, but ever since the rb nerf the stun portion of shining armor is pretty much the smallest benefit of the buff. The stuff that can be stunned is usually trivial as is, and the stuff that can't be stunned is flagged as stun immune anyway.
  13. Fyrerock Augur

    Running a 4 box plus add charming for more then just names is something that very few people would be willing to do, so yes the dps will not be that great.

    As for which healer will be the best that is the cleric for healing and the shaman for extra dps and buffs. The best part of unity is not the extra hp's but foresight that ability to avoid being hit. For names you will have to charm and casting unity on a charmed pet will help with dps as well.
  14. Xorn New Member

    cleric....both the Shining armor and the Aura's the cleric adds....plus you have the reverse dmg shield too...
  15. Sleepy New Member

    Two more reason to pick Cleric which are especially good for raid encounters.

    Divine Rez: Insta rez your target to full HPs & Mana
    Divine Intervention: If your target would have died, the don't and get healed instead.