Hi I am currently boxing a druid and my toons are at level 70 with groupable/bazaar gear. While expeing in anything harder than farm Dragoncrest Hills druid has constant trouble keeping everyone alive. The 10second/4.5k heal is out of the question. There is no decent fast heal and healing in general unless its a single pull leaves a lot to be desired. Reading these forums has me convinced that druid actually can be the only healer my question is at what level does that actually happen so I can stop having to play with lacklustre healer mercs all the time. Another option is to just make a cleric who can CH at level 39 instead of investing any more time in druid.
Dragonscale hills should be at the top end of the difficulty for a L70, zones from older expansions will have MUCH weaker mobs plus your defiant gear is better than armor from those expansions. While DSH was made with defiant armor in mind, so it's harder to overgear. Pure life at 72 should work as a spammable heal to keep a tank alive. Then with Adrenaline Surge at 75 for a longer recast bigger heal with a group heal (Lunarlight) also at 75 and Purevida at 77 you will be able to function as a fully fledged healer. The Vida line will stay as your base no-recast heals . Adrenalines will be larger, higher cost, faster with a 15s recast. At 90 you'll start getting the Rejuvilation line, very fast cast with a 12s recast. Keeping a cleric merc till you get into the 75-80 range may be a good idea. Clerics and CH being the main sources of healing warped the game and priests a lot. Sticking to a damage role until you get to spells after that era is the best bet. After that everything should be good.
thank you for your reply! appreciated 10 more levels doesnt sound too bad PS: I share your opinion that CH thing got things askew
First, an under-AA'd druid will not function well as sole healer in a content-level-appropriate group. If you are not keeping the healing AAs max'd out as you level, then you should expect problems. Provided you keep the AAs maxed, and keep current with spell haste focus and healing focus items, then you should be a capable sole healer. Karana's Renewal? Don't mem that pig, that spell has been borderline useless since day one. That spell was designed with PoP gameplay in mind, and has no place in content created 5 years later. Our group heals sucked pretty hard for the first few iterations of that spell line. You will like your group heal much more in 20 levels, but for now its a big disappointment. As mentioned, 75 Adrenaline is your first fast heal, but it comes with the price of having a huge refresh time -- you won't be spamming this spell, consider it an additional heal. Higher levels you'll get an additional fast heal, but it also has a loooong refresh, you won't spam that one either. If you perceive your problem to be not healing fast enough, then new spells won't rectify that situation much. Your main spammy heal is always going to have the same 3.75 base cast time as you have now with the Chloro/Infusion heals -- it never gets any faster. Don't waste your time with the cleric notion based on Cheal alone. You would end up retiring that spell soon enough anyway.
Also do not overlook druid white wolf AA. I do not remember what level you have to be to get but get it early. I have a level 100 Druid in raid gear that keeps groups up as the only healer in raids and I am also patch healing 8-9 tanks. Playing a druid is not easy but keeping your healing and defensive AAs maxed will help a great deal. I solo healed grouping for most of my tune's life but I structured my AA purchases around healing. Look for AAs that extend spell duration and shorten recasts.
thank you for your input! appreciated After reading your replies I realize that I have more questions. Specifically: 1. do heals at 90+ heal for around half tank's hp (I understand tanks are very different but I dont know how to phrase it any better. Say your average group geared tank whatever that is.) Currently mobs can go through half tanks hp in around 5 sec and even less if I go to kill some deeply red con stuff while playing around. Just trying to gage. 2. Are druids able to save a caster if they pull agro? Say caster has to tank for 5-10 seconds can we keep them alive? I am concerned regarding lack of spamable fast heal but maybe casters at that level can tank well enough to be healed by normal heal. I just dont know. Currently saving caster on overagro is very challenging even with mercs assistance unless I am doing trivial content. 3. Whatever group named group may attempt are druids able to keep up with group heals/tank heals? I am not at that level so I dont know the content to ask a better question. I also understand that some stuff may require 2 healers unless group is over geared. I am talking about whatever it is your general challenging but not impossible named at that level. From what I hear that later nameds do some AE dmg thats why I ask.
1. Yes. Of course, it depends how stout the tank is. Once you level into the 90s, provided you have kept up on healing AAs, you are going to crit heal quite often, predictably often. Crit heals at this level will regularly land for half-tank hps, and then some. 2. Possibly. Depends largely on your reaction time. Casters will get splattered pretty quick in appropriate group-level content. If you can land one heal and buy a couple seconds for the caster to ditch agro or for the tank to snatch it back, you did good. Don't expect to cast 3-4 heals while the caster chooses to tank for 10 seconds. If that situation occurs, then both the caster and your tank are doing it wrong. 3. Possibly. Too many factors to give a blanket response. Depends what kind of suprises the namer has up his sleeve. Rampage? AE ramp? Debuffs? DoTs? Stuns? Mezzes? Fears? As you continue to level, you will find less and less namers that are tank-n-spank. The vast majority have at least one, and sometimes several, special abilities with which you must contend. In some situations you will find yourself needing to heal and cure multiple members of the group, while keeping the tank and most importantly yourself alive. You'll typically need to break out all your tricks. Being pushed to the limits of what you can do and still successfully slaying the beast make #3 scenarios the most fun
Read through this post, even though it says raiding, the healing playbook will work great in groups. https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/druid-raiding-druid-guide.131/ Once you get to 95, things will change from what that guild says, but following the advice in there will get you a long way. Too add on to what Tobynn said 1) Sometimes you'll find yourself chasing the tank's HPs with your heals and just breaking even or slipping behind on healing vs damage until a crit brings the tank back to full. This happens as any healer, and jamming your quick heals and AA support will help stabilize the situation. 2) Combat speed in EQ starts ramping up with levels. It's quite possible for a group geared caster to be killed in 2-3 rounds in appropriate content. Rolling through quick heals can extend that out long enough for someone to get the mob back on the correct target.
When I was group healing before I started raiding, my motto was "Heal early heal often!" Another aspect of group healing is to concentrate on only healing your group. Your healing priorities are: 1 yourself (dead druid cannot heal), 2 your tank 3 other healer even if it is a merc, 3 other party members and lastly any pets. Your casters need to know how to avoid taking agro from the tank and the tank needs to know how to keep agro. Another thing is that promised heals are not really that good, If your tank is about to take on a namer and you can cast a promise heal in anticipation, it might help. What would be even better is to buff your tank with a temporary HP buff.
In simple, a druid really has no trouble healing level appropriate groupable content along the way, WITH THE PROPER AA. At 70, with aa (and I am not saying as another did max healing aa - but say at least 50% of the healing aa), you should be able to heal any appropriate level 70 content, assuming the tank you are healing is not completely under geared or under aa'd, or both. There are a couple rougher patches and a couple easy. In tough content, you will have a tougher time then a cleric and you should. If you get your healing aa maxed, your effort will be much easier. Lower down in levels (and even higher), druids main thing is not keeping the tank up, its trying to keep a tank up + multiple other group members at the same time. at 70 you have one group heal (Moonshadow?) which is not bad, but moderately long refresh and and not super long cast. Its just fine. However, if you find yourself in a group with multiple people trying to get agro and not working as a team, it is then you will have difficulty. at 70 you got plenty - group heal quick heal (at 72), normal heal, your old 75% ch is still viable, skin of the reptile (really sweet at 70), your group heal and of course keep regen on everyone so that it helps heal the rest of the groups incidentals. I used to find Skin of the Reptile to be a massive boost in that level range, enough to almost keep up alone a good tank, with an occasional heal to bring them back on normal trash mobs.
at 70 my single heal does not even come close to healing half of bazaar geared tanks hp thats with 300 some AAs on the druid. If anyone other than tank grabs agro for whatever reason they are dead. So there is no way for me to be a single healer unless the group is killing some completely trivial content.
To help possibly steer this toward AA choices, here's a list of AA's that are relevant for a level 70 druid. They pertain to healing as well as mana regen AA's. A druid will need to share which of these are most important and which can be ignored, but this should hopefully give a listing to work off of. Healing Focused AA's 5 ranks of Abundant Healing (Offers chance target will receive additional healing over next 30 seconds. Works on spells lvl 60-75. 10% chance, 250 hp/tick.) 9 ranks of Healing Adept (Increase effectiveness of healing by 3% per rank, total = 28%) 9 ranks of Healing Gift (Increase chance of a crit (double) healing by an additional 2% per rank, total = 22%) 3 ranks of Convergence of Spirits (This rank is a single target heal (2000 heal), regen (1000/tick) and DS (80), adds 66 AC. Range: 200, instant cast, 18 sec duration and is extendable. 15 min reuse) 8 ranks of Nature's Boon (This creates a stationary ward that continually heals everyone around it for ??? hp a tick. Duration 5 min, 30 min reuse.) 6 ranks of Spirit of the Wood (MGB'able group AA, 200 range/ae range, 30 sec duration (is extendable) which does 333/tick heal, 70 DS, 66 AC. 15 min reuse) Mana or Mana Regen Focused AA's 3 ranks of Gift of Mana (When casting a level 65-70 spell, get a chance that next spell (level 70 or lower) will only cost one mana. This rank increases the chance of the 1 mana cost.) 1 rank of Secondary Forte (Lets you take a 2nd specialization over the cap by 50 points. NOTE, once purchased, spam the right spell type to get your spec update and lock this in. 200 specialization is 11% mana pres.) 3 ranks of Spell Casting Mastery (Reduces mana cost of spells by an additional 5%, total is 15%) 10 ranks of Planar Power (Raises maximum stats can be raised to with items by 5 points per rank, total added = 50) 5 ranks of Innate Enlightenment (Raises the max cap for intelligence and wisdom by an additional 10 per rank, total = 50) 2 ranks of Mental Stamina (Adds 50 to your mana pool per rank, total added = 100) 5 ranks of Expansive Mind (Increases max that mana regen can be increased by with items by 1, total 5) 3 ranks of Mental Clarity (Raises natural mana regen by 1 per rank, total = 3) 6 ranks of Mastery of the Past (This rank allows you not to fizzle any spells up to level 66) Miscellaneous AA's 3 ranks of Quick Buff (Reduces cast time of beneficial buffs by an additional 25%, total = 50%. (This is the maximum cast time reduction allowed.) 4 ranks of Spell Casting Reinforcement (Increases the duration of beneficial spells by an additional 20%, total is 50%) Plus the improved healing focus effect on druid armor (this is key).
My comments are in yellow, I removed the ones not worth buying until your AA count to close to max for your level. With current raid tanks, my base heal lands for about 25-30% of their HP, with crits around 60-80%. You're stuck in some levels that do kind of suck, but things get better, Using a clr merc and switching into a dps/backup healer role is perfectly legit and probably better for kill speed.
If a player grabs agro unintentionally off the tank, that is there fault. In addition to my druid, I play a level 100 wizard and I know that if I pull agro off the tank, I need to fade or cast an anti agro spell, if those fail, I die. I do not consider it the healers fault. But the healer will get accused by many players. Often it is either an under-geared player, a player without needed AAs or a player that needs to just know more about playing his or her class. I had this happen when HoT was current; I was grouped with a warrior guildie who I could tell needed something. I sent him a tell when the group was breaking up that he might want to talk to the other warriors because I was concerned that his health was fluctuating, which didn't seem good because he was trying to step into raid tanking. He replied that no other healer had an issue, so it was just me. Two weeks later he sent me a tell thanking me because he talked to another warrior who found the issue. You Evacuation spell is also a dual edged sword you don't cast it and the party wipes, people start clamoring that you should have. But if you cast it without the group yelling for it and they will be angry because they could handle the situation. Welcome to the wonderful world of playing a healer who can port.
thanks guys previous post was in reply to Oblivion an it just got under my skin for some reason. Evac is a god send that I always mem it and will continue to do so till I can afford that AA - exodus.
Casai it's a two way street. You needing the appropriate AA's (which is where we've gone with this thread) and then if you're healing an actual player, that player needs to be properly geared as well. Is why there's a term floating around called "paper tank" as they get shredded very easily if they aren't geared and AA's and aug'd appropriately.
I will reiterate once again: an under-AA'd druid will not function well as sole healer in a content-level-appropriate group. So, 1. You need to be appropriately geared and AA'd to be an effective sole healer. 2. You need to be in an appropriate group to be an effective sole healer. If your tank is squishy, then you will likely have a tough time healing, regardless of your own gear and AAs. If your group is low dps, then fights will take much longer than they should, and you will likely also have a tough time healing. Combine both situations, and you greatly reduce the chance of being an effective sole healer in that particular group. With a decent tank and decent dps, its typically not a problem. The group can make-or-break the healer just as often as the healer can make-or-break the group.
Yeah, around 65-80 can be tough, mostly because of cast times and recast times. It does pick up a lot after 80, when we start getting the Promised heals. Reptile skin and Wild Growth help a lot. Spirit of the Bear AA too. I begin every fight with Blessing of Ro AA on the mob to reduce incoming damage. The xx-vida line will be your bread and butter. There are going to be two single target fast heals that you can mix in, and two group heals. Don't forget about Sunbreeze Blessing. It nukes the tank's target (you do have the tank targeted, don't you?), plus it makes you twincast your next 2 heals. If you get caught with your proverbial pants down and you're debuffing the mob while your tank is getting smacked, don't forget about the Remote nuke line. Nukes the mob, heals its target. Can crit on both the nuke and the heal. Keeping a raid group alive, plus 8 or 9 tanks on extended target isn't so hard. The biggest problems I have are 1. instadeath because somebody made a mistake, 2. someone ran out of range. Of course it's nice to have a paladin in the group for backup group heals, or even a beastlord or a ranger to splash.
Not sure what I possibly said that "got under your skins", but set, la vie. I was trying to be supportive and stress the importance of "AA" and equipment (equipment particularly of the tank, i.e standard equipment + as Crystilla mentioned proper augs) to a happier healing druid. Crystilla, Lila and Tobynn really covered it all in exquisite detail. GL
