I want to try Healing on the Fallen Gate server and I'm curious about Channeler. 1) With lvl cap of 50 and no AAs, do they ever become effective healers? At what level? 2) Is the population of Channelers on FG over or under populated? 3) Are they desired in raids? Do they offer anything to a group or raid that other healers cannot? 4) How is their DPS and ability to solo compared to the other priests? 5) Is the construct pet buggy? Since its vital to have an active pet are there frequent times where the pet gets hung up or wont join the fight?
1) They are extremely effective healers There is higher-end content that would be near-impossible to do without one unless you have 2 healers or a group of exceptional players. 2) It seems fine but idk. 3) We have 2 in raids right now. There is a reason for that. They make life a lot easier. 4) Solo they are probably similar to other priests. They don't tear through mobs like a mage, but they're not exactly templars in that regard. On AoE they can do decent DPS. 6) I don't know about buggy, but positioning of the pet is important. In some fights with tanks moving around a lot, it can be awkward. You'll probably actually using pet commands in some cases. Note: I don't play a channeler, these are just my observations from having grouped and raided with them. See this thread for more discussion about healer balance on Fallen Gate.
I don't play on the TLE sever but I raid main a channeler on live. The pet is used mostly to intercept damage and has a decent radius, don't remember how much. I've never had the pet NOT go in for the attack or get hung up. There may be times when you want to keep it close to you and not attack, so you can keep the intercept radius near you and not around the mob. It does proc some heals or dps and things depending on the set up. On live it's not enough to matter but on TLE it may be, idk.
The biggest issue with pet being in range of the intercept target (15m I think) is against big dragon bosses that have huge hit boxes. You have to use the stay command to keep you pet in specific range of where the tank is pulling to.
15 metre radius yes, you may need to pull it back then send it in again to make sure it;s in range of the intercept target, and your heals to it on ranged or massive hitbox mobs.
Bought and tried a channeler on FG, worst 13 levels I've had in am MOM and this from a guy that played a Cleric in EQ1 where you couldn't do a thing without a group. Difference is people wanted to group with you, as a channeler per level 15 (yes doesn't sound like a lot but soloing to 15 on FG osmt fast) no one wants you around. You don't DPS enough to be DPS, you have one heal with an eight second recast and three second cast so you can't be a healer. You are absolutely useless for 15 levels. So you quest, and run out of quests, so you zone hop to quest and you grind and it's simply frustrating and couldn't get less fun. So if you want to play a channeler on FG and don't have a group to carry you through the levels get ready to be solo and bored as you grind for hours. Or do like I did and give up and play a class that doesn't suck for the first 15 levels. IMO, on a live server this is barely an issue, soloing is faster and experience is much faster so this crap time would fly by, but on FG it simply stinks.
I am sorry your experience with the Channeler was not good. However, judging a class on the levels 1-13 is absurd. Sounds like your problem is not the class, it is what you are doing. Yes Priests solo slowly early on, but saying you can not run a dungeon as a Channeler up to level 15 is flat wrong. For the first few dungeons you come across you do not even need a proper group set up. I can not count the number of times I did dungeons with either no tank or no healer. Get 5-6 people that aren't idiots and just kill ****. Also at level 15, you have 2 heals, and your Construct Intercept, and what ever essences you have got for your pet.
I didn't judge a class on 13 levels, I clearly said (multiple times) that it's the worst starting class ever. It's a healer that can't heal and has horrible dps. Doesn't get much worse then that. Get people in a group.. wow words of wisdom, I also said many times no one wants to group with a channeler pre 15 because you bring nothing to the group. DPS is bad, and no heals, you are a wasted spot in a group. Honestly the class is simply a failure pre level 15 and yes I understand most classes aren't developed before 15, or even 20th level but this class simply takes it to a new level. I expected more from a premium class, like say an actual roll in a group prior to level 15? At least being viable to some extent.
The first 15 levels even with no potions or collections, is 8 -10 hours of game play, suck it up. And like I said the early dungeons don't need proper groups. You can run them with any combination of 6 players as long as those players aren't morons. Are Channelers healing kit limited "pre" 15? Sure, but pre 15 you don't even need a healer for 90% of the 2 dungeons you can run at that level. People want a player with a pulse at that level, most don't care about the class. I have never, passed on inviting some one while leveling based on the class. If your experience is different, I am sorry you are coming across those types of players. While leveling my BL alt this last week, I did WC with no tank and no healer, I did 90% of FG with no tank or healer, I did most of RoV with no tank or healer, I did most of RE with no tank. So if a class is performing poorly at specific level tiers, it really doesn't matter because you do not need a healer or tank to do 90% of the group leveling content.
And just out of curiosity, were you running the : Aquatic Essence On any combat or spell hit this spell will case Aquatic Essence on Caster. Heals group members (AE) Which you can get at level 10, because that plus healing arrow every 8 seconds, makes group healing stupid easy at lower levels. Especially since you have 2 attacks you can spam at level 10.
That's the thing, the role doesn't matter at all from 1-10, no one is really doing dungeons before level 10. So solo questing from 1-10 is slow? Sure, you are a Priest. Just because you can't get to level 15 in 8-10 hours doesn't mean it hasn't been done several times, by lots of people and can be done on any class. Not calling you bad or saying "learn to play". It's just the truth. Every healer is Vanilla solos a little slow, and you keep saying you can't get a group because you are a Channeler. I just have not experienced that at all on this server. But not getting a group is not the classes fault, it can do what is needed in groups from level 10 +, and there is no real group content before that.
You are right, I don't know why I can't level from 1-50 in two days, I'm sure it can be done. I bow to your awesomness. Bottom line is for a premium class to have such a crap start (the absolute worst of any class because they simply don't excel at anything at all) isn't what I'd expect. Especially when BL is the exact opposite, and it's the other premium class. Anyway as I said it's my opinion and you can have yours also it simply doesn't make mine wrong. If you are telling me pre 15 channelers can actually heal worth a damn I disagree because they can't. They have no role in the early dungeons at all.
I made a two part series on YouTube to help answer some of the common questions about Channelers. Open to corrections, the channeler in the video is on the new TLE Fallen Gate server. The music may get loud in places... but I did include full Subtitles. [Part 1] [Part 2]
