Greetings healers of Norrath! I am seeking your guidance, a few friends of mine have recently been talked into giving EQ a go, and we plan on starting from the beginning (sorta) and working our way up through the expansions at our own pace until we reach current content. We do not plan on raiding, except once we are high enough to do it with our single group of characters (for epics and what not). My brother is going to play our healer and is unsure which would be best though. I was hoping to get some feedback so I could help him decide on what to play. If anyone can give some pro's/con's or tell me why they think a certain healer sticks out as "best" in group content and a much better fit than the other classes it would be greatly appreciated. We are looking for a class that is going to be sufficient throughout the leveling process, not just at max level since we plan on taking our time so if a certain class is great at 90+ but terrible up until that point for example that would be very helpful information. I personally feel a cleric is lowest on the "what he should play" list since we can have mercs for their buffs and the utility of a shaman or druid, slows, atk debuffs, buffs for caster/melee etc would be very beneficial. But I am very interested in any evidence that could change my opinion on that!
Real clerics can do much more than merc clerics, you're wrong to dismiss the class out of hand. You may well pick one of the other two still, but they have plenty to bring to the table.
I was not trying to imply that I dismiss it as an option entirely, I merely meant that cleric seems the weakest choice in group content because with mercs we can still gain the buffs of the cleric, and still retain the utility of the other healers where as with the cleric all we would have access to is the clerics abilities since there is no druid or shaman merc to provide their buffs
Clerics are pretty full until higher levels but their heals are also notably better. If you are going to have some melee dps I'd go shaman I think. Bards aren't highly necessary for melee until higher levels so a shaman will cover most of the melee buffing.
It is going to depend on what other classes are being played. You really want track (which only druids, rangers and bards get). Having porting options can speed things up (which only druids and rangers get). Shaman work well IF you have melee classes as part of your group of friends; but if you're all casters, etc. shaman would be the wrong choice. I like my cleric as I've pulled on her since level 1, can heal/deal with overpulls well, she can take a beating, the flexibility of being able to react in a number of ways (my spell options are way more expansive than druid or shaman for healing). - Later levels you can melee, tank and even add decent DPS (on undead mobs). I love my younger druid for her flexibility. Tracking #1, snaring, porting (most will say this is not important; for me I find it useful still), healing and dps'ing, etc.
Clerics aren't for everyone. You have to love playing a cleric to get the most out of it, if your only going to sit back like a merc, you should probably pick something else.
In theory with a big size sample the 3 priests should offer the same group survivability. Debuffs + healing same for all 3. I think it's the case. Now whats the difference beside dps? Mainly Druids can port/evac/gr lev/group inv, Clerics can burst heals/group IVU, Shamans can gr lev/group inv. If you have already a class with gr inv but no gr ivu I will go with Cleric.
All three are absolutely perfectly viable options for all group content, provided that the skill is there. The "best" one is the one which your brother will enjoy playing the most. I know, that's the kinda obvious somewhat unhelpful answer. But it's true. Do they see them self as playing more of a specialist, doing a small number of things better than anyone else? Or would they like doing a bit of everything, but not at the peak? Do they like healing and damage prevention / survivability? If the answer is no, well, then none of the three work here as options, heh. But do they like it more than any other aspect of the game? How important is it that they be doing part of the fighting? To what extent? Does the idea of not being the major source of damage to the mob, but instead helping others do their job better and adding utility sound appealing? Do they want a cool looking feral pet that is mostly useless, a cute huggable pet that is complete joke, or a pet so god awful that other classes probably don't even know you have it?
Yeah oops. Dru + wiz for porting (my mistake). If you don't have a slower (chanter/bard) in your crew, shaman would fill that role. No tracker (bard/ranger), druid would fill that role. (This is my #1 reason for druid pick, because you can't know how wonderful it is to want to gear up and be able to actually see if named are up when you zone in.)
Have you ever seen a movie clip of a factory where the workers are doing some incredibly repetitive action over and over and over again? They were all group clerics and they lost their minds a long time ago. Hire a merc.
That's why they give us a viral reverse dmg shield and fade. Gotta keep a steady influx of multiple mobs in camp to keep us from getting bored.
Eventually tanks will stop trying to hold aggro and just let you tank, and CC will stop trying to lock mobs down. That's when you know you have them well trained and you can have fun.
I'll be the first to admit that driving a tank crazy while they try to hold aggro in a nice undead zone like Chapterhouse can be a lot of fun. But if you're honest with the OP, that is NOT the norm for a casual grouping cleric. Explain how they are nearly useless in any other fight unless they load a custom spell set that is wildly different than the one they need to have loaded for their routine grouping tasks. Explain how they will depend on invis potions or another person in the group at all times during travel. Explain how they will largely be forced to sit at the safe spot while other players get to explore and do fun stuff like training the neighbors. If the group is going to be hard chargers and rock hard content with little down time then maybe a cleric is appropriate. More likely the OP's brother will be incredibly bored before long with his cleric choice.
Ditch the hybrid tanks and get a real tank. It's not very difficult to hold agro from clerics who think they are tanks. They may cast TU before the mob is in camp, but I can still yank agro off of them easily and keep it, laughing at them thinking they can agro mobs over me. as for the OP. Go with a druid. Druids have porting and track which are two very useful abilities. They can also snare and cast run speed ( spirit of cheetah ) and group invis. Basically you can heal a group with no issues, as well as having good debuffs/buffs and make traveling faster all in one. And if you don't feel like haeling you can always just Nuke, and do well DPS at that.
Nonsense, I do all my group healing with Gloriouses & Intras+Contras, while meleeing. It's not a raid heal set, but to me the raid heal set is the weird one, not the other way around. Nearly every cast is dealing damage. Glorious Intra Intra Intra Contra Contra Contra Groupheal Rem Rem Shining (really a swap slot, but I'm lazy like anyone) +1 (DS, second Glorious, pacify, WardofSurety, group HoT, whatever)
