My Cleric Build - How to be a 100k+ Healer in Warfronts

Hey Guys, I've managed to build a pretty good setup for Foghladha and have been topping the charts in warfronts for healing by up to 3x the next closest healer on either side. Keep in mind I'm also at the bottom of the curve for said warfront. Here are some of my scores. Please note the level of my character.





Healing Booster - General AOE HoT - Eats lots of mana so use sparingly.
suppressmacrofailures
use Golem's Sensory Core
cast @self Cascade
cast Tidal Surge
cast Healing Showers
cast Healing Flood

Mana Boost - For when mana gets low
suppressmacrofailures
use Golem's Sensory Core
cast @self Cascade
use Mighty Mana Potion
use Greater Mana Potion
use Basic Mana Potion
cast @self Soothing Stream

Bring the Pain - When I need to put a defiant to bed.
suppressmacrofailures
cast Life's Vengeance
cast Drown
cast Waterjet

Power Hot - My General Use Spam heal
#show Healing Spray
suppressmacrofailures
cast Healing Breath
cast Ripple
cast Healing Spray

AOE Heal - For when things get thick and need to do a lot of AoE heals.
suppressmacrofailures
cast Touch the Light
cast Healing Cataract
cast Healing Communion

» Edited on: 2011-05-19 10:26:50

» Edited on: 2011-05-19 10:31:55

That looks awesome, Fog. I wonder how two or three healers specced like this would do in a guild group. :D I have no substantive comments other than I would suggest trying to get the Crystal Vine and the Frozen Deep One Tear as I bet they would up the healing (I know with a Justicar it's crazy - Crystal Vine has a chance to proc off any heal so you can do a piddly 5 point heal and Crystal Vine will proc to heal 750 more. I realize a pure healing build isn't gonig to have this same effect but any sort of AOE heal will have lots of chances to proc the extra heal and/or shield from these two essences).

Each one requires 1 purple sourceshard and around 2k planarite. » Edited on: 2011-05-19 10:42:56

» Edited on: 2011-05-19 10:43:31

» Edited on: 2011-05-19 10:44:03

I was curious as to what a pure healer role (which I assume is what you are) would look like. The cleric I started to play sucks, but I was a rockin' priest in WoW and WAR, so I was hoping to find Rift's version.

» Edited on: 2011-05-19 21:34:37

Decent pvp spec, however Wolf I find 50/50 Sent/Purifier much more effective for Tier instances and raid healing pve. The cleric's role is to heal through burst and to dispel which the bards and chloros top off the raid with aoe heals. The standard sent/pur spec is awesome in fulfilling this role as you get 3 dispels and massive tank heals, plus surging flames keeps the melee healed. I use a similar spec to Ben for pvp as it is godly for topping wf heal meters.

Our guild is about to begin the T1 dungeons and our mage is a Chloro build. With that in mind I just reset Serinda's dungeon healing role to a 51 point Purifier build. Talk about some serious ability to keep the main tank up! I spent the remaining 15 points in Warden simply because that is my favorite healing tree. Our first T1 run will be a good experiment. We'll see how this build works.

Would you mind posting your build Mijjah? Did you level using this build or did you have a different one?

There is no build that keeps a tank up better than a 51 point Purifier build :-) Including the absorb mitigation it does have the highest single target heals per second. The big "but" is that it has very little in the way of group heals. It will go very well if you always play with a mage that can go chloro, but it is very focussed on what it does. Paradoxically it is a very good and very bad build for warfronts. I love playing it in WF like Black Garden, where it will keep the artifact holder up for ages. With the best shields in the game you can make sure the Flag is picked up if all the enemy team is doing is tossing an AoE. As most of your heals are single target, though; and around a third should be through shields which aren't counted for heals or favour you'll find yourself bottom of the pole for favour, regardless of how much value you individually contribute. There are a lot of very good healing builds all with different strengths and weaknesses. Trick is to find one that suits your playstyle and what you want to do. As a healer cleric, I think you'll want multiple healing roles to cover different situations (especially if you want to PVP and instance).

Having a 51 point purifier spec to heal expert dungeons is a bit overkill and you sacrifice alot of group heals for that. If you are the only healer in the group (which is what the dungeons are now tuned for) then you should have abilities to group heal and cleanse effectively. And you really don't need that much healing power anyways. I've been main healing T2's as a Justicar with absolutely no issues. If you like the Purifier soul, then I'd suggest you not go to 51 points for expert dungeons, rather save those points and dump them into Sentinel or Warden. Remember, it's not about how big your heals are but how many things you can do to allow your other group members to DPS more. If you can't group heal effectively then either 1> your group members have to take less damage or 2> you have to bring an offhealer which slows DPS. Raid dungeon healing is another story of course. Then you will find that all the healers will specialize in various roles to complement each other. Two Purifier healers on the tank do not synergize well but a Warden cleric and Purifier cleric are extremely good complements to each other. Anyways like Lumen said, there's lots of ways to heal and they're all effective in their own way. My next thing is mainhealing as a Shaman/Justicar lol. Just do whatever you like and is most effective to your group.

Thanks for the input guys. I only have two roles so far for Serinda. I know I should have more but I'm constantly broke (coinwise) as I'm funding all my own crafting plus gear and updates for a lot of my guild's lowbies. I'm always struggling for coin. That said, prior to my respec I had two roles: Justicar(48)/Purifier(18) and Purifier(40)/Warden(26). After my respec I'm now: Justicar(51)/Purifier(15) and Purifier(51)/Warden(15). I don't really care for either respec. I was generally happier with my roles prior to the respec but I plan to give it more time. For my Justicar build, I wanted to invest 51 points in Justicar mainly for Doctrine of Authority, which is a very nice attack that heals the entire party for 300% of damage dealt. Since I hit for around 200 and crit for as much as 400, this could be a very substantial heal. Somehow I had images dancing through my head that I'd be able to spam this attack over and over. LOL... It wasn't until I actually got it that I noticed the 15 second cooldown, making it nowhere near as powerful as I had imagined in my mind. In fact, it's not really that powerful at all, being that it can only be used once, maybe twice per fight. In the process I lost Ward of the Ancestors from the Purifier tree, which is a nice damage shield I can place on allies. Not a good trade and I'll likely respec back to my previous build. I'm still experimenting with the 51 point Purifier build but I agree that I think it makes me a bit too much of a one trick pony. I've lost a lot of flexibility. Again, I want to give it more time and I do think that when paired with our guild's Chloromancer, healing won't be a problem. Unless we have too much healing and not enough DPS, which is very possible.

Unless you're using that Justicar spec to tank, then you don't want to put that many points into that soul. There are 2 ways a Justicar heals a group/raid. One is direct healing via Doctrines. Of course, you need to build up Convictions to do this. If you are ranged, then you should take a class with Life based spells like Sentinel or Inquisitor to give you more spells that proc Conviction. Doctrine of Loyalty AOE heals can really save a raid or group. The second way a Justicar can heal is through indirect heals via Reparation (group/raid) or overhealing through Righteous Mandate (single target). Eventhough non Justicar spells only heal for 10% of the damage done (not counting Mien of Honor boost), if you're putting out 500+ DPS then that's still some good healing. Because you really don't need that many points into Justicar to get Reparation and Doctrine of Loyalty and Mien of Honor, you can really go deep into other trees to either augment your direct heals (Sentinel is a good one for this) or augment your indirect heals through improved DPS(Inquisitor for ranged or Shaman for melee). Plus it's fun being able to do some damage and heal at the same time. ;0

I'm so humored when I read over these topics. Sofie is a level 50 Cleric who has been 51 point Sentinel and 15 point Warden, and she's had this same spec since beta. I've legitimately never even had to explore the possibility of another spec due to my effectiveness in my team. It's just now that I'm contemplating buying some other roles, and it's only to have a bit of fun and see what the other specs are capable of. With Sentinel I'm able to burst heal my tank while simultaneously healing the rest of my group. I can remove debuffs, I have my battle rez handy, I have some decent HoTs, some great 'holy cow they need heals IMMEDIATELY' powers, and more. I'm not sure why I don't hear people discussing Sentinel as much as Warden or Purifier... maybe it's less common. Either way, this looks like a great Warfront healing spec, and it'd be interesting to give a go. Thanks for the screenshots. :)

Would you be willing to post your build please Sofie? I assume that you used yours to level as well.

Bentmer, I definitely tank with Serinda! I also solo resource farm a lot as well, so being able to tank 3-4 mobs at the same time while keeping myself healed is critical. So far Justicar is my favorite Cleric build mainly because it's so different than traditional MMO clerics. It reminds me of the Warrior Priest from WAR. If there's some fighting going on nearby, you can always count on Serinda being right smack in the middle of the melee furball. =) Now that we're transitioning to organized T1 dungeon romps, I'm trying to shift my role to something more usefull for that endeavor. Thus I'm beginning to experiment with traditional healing roles. I do not plan on retaining my 51 point Purifier role for much longer as I'm sure, as you're mentioning, that there are more effective ways to go. I'm also going to have her toughness to 63 as soon as I earn a few more armorsmith plaques. Once there I suspect we'll play around with having her tank some T1, just to say we did it. Sofie, I'm glad we're able to humor you. =P I haven't gotten around to trying Sentinel yet but it's on my to-do list.

Bentmer: I find the change to the shield (cast every 3s, can recast every 20) has actually helped the party heal capability a lot. It's easy now to drop a shield on someone and heal them up once you have the time to cast. I also find that in some PUG groups (even T1s) I am still regularly using the tank cooldowns a lot and am grateful for the extra boost. That's the frustration as a healer - the level you need to perform at is disctated by the other players rather than the content. I tend to stick in the spec most of the time with dungeons, but I make sure I have other options (that's the thing with extreme specs - they sometimes won't be good for all situations). I haven't found a good party heal spec yet (which to me means I need to check out Warden more and start working on some rotations) - I find my Sent/Pri spec doesn't feel much better for party healing and I mostly only slip into it when I need an AoE Cleanse. My thoughts on Purifier 51 actually being good were based on Signal saying Serinda was grouping with a Chloro. Chloro covers all the weaknesses of Puri 51 - having a battle res, good party heals and an additional dispel. And Purifier is really good at low gear levels (the upside of the current state of play where shields - except for the one on the heal spell - don't scale with spell power). Sophie: I believe Sentinel is the most common healing soul used, but the least likely to be found used at the full 51 points. Purifier is the focussed single target build with good cooldowns and tools, Warden is the focussed HoTs and group heal build and variety in heals. Sentinel is the Jack of All Trades - good tanking and group heals without going to extremes. Which is why the people electing to go to extremes are more likely to pick Warden or Purifier 51 builds. Sentinel also has the only AoE cleanse and battle rez, so you often see Sent hybrids balancing the other souls and adding those tools. Pure Sentinel probably have the worst "bonus to big heal" for tank healing compared to the other trees, as the 8s HoT they invest in gets overwritten every time they recast the big heal (which is why you see tank heal specs with Sent / Purifier that alternate big heal spells). Also the HoT that you get from the big Sentinel heal is actually based on the amount successfully healed rather than the total potential heal - so if the tank gets crit healed but only healed for 80 points the Hot is based off 80 rather than 3K :-( (in my opinion this is something Trion should change - the Purifier option based off SP is much better). 51 point Sentinel is still a great spec though - best utility, good cooldowns both single and group and solid performance, and in the current dungeon content it's not a spec that you'll need to alternate from for certain fights. That's the best thing about the cleric healing model. All healing souls are fairly well defined and distinct and all have strengths and weaknesses. They all have great 51 point abilities, and strong bonuses at the 26 point level for specialisation. Utility, cooldown availability, tank healing and AoE healing are at different levels in all trees so there are many really good builds, to either suit a playstyle or balance around a group makeup.

» Edited on: 2011-05-23 07:41:11

Good info guys! And Lum you are right, the only reason I'm playing with 51 point Purifier is because I know we have a dedicated Chloro. When I can afford my third role I'll probably build it as a Purifier/Warden, but I'm not sure the point distribution yet. I'll really need to play with the character builder before I execute on the plan in game. My fourth role will be DPS, so mayhap a Shaman/Inquisitor combo. I haven't studied the offensive cleric souls yet. Clearly a lot of thought was put into the individual souls and how they interact with one another. Trion has done an excellent job with the soul system.

» Edited on: 2011-05-23 09:34:55

Lum - Try a Sent/Justicar spec. I'm 35/31 right now so I can get both battle rezzes. You can still MH through all the Sentinel spells and you have tremendous burst AOE heal capabilities via Justicar. Which btw, almost always procs Serendipity, making your HI even faster. The con is you have to melee a little via Purpose to regen your mana back. It's probably not the best spec if your gear is pre-T2 based on mana regen. And Purifier is a viable dungeon group spec. It is really a matter of playstyle. I've been a Warden/Sent, a Sent/Warden, a Puri/Sent, a Puri/Warden, a Inquis/Just, and a Sent/Just main healer in the expert dungeons now. They all work, it just depends on how you play and what you prefer. I just am pointing out that after the dungeon nerfs, the experts are designed to require only one healer so having more than one is a bit overkill. Then again, it's better to be safe than sorry. The Sentinel soul is widely considered the utility soul because it offers tremendous utility spells and it's often paired with another healing soul to augment the effectiveness of that soul. By itself, it's not quite as healing efficient as Purifier (RF is better mana efficiency wise than HI) and it's not as movement friendly as Warden is with it's instant HoT's. But every main heal spec I've had always has at least enough points to get Serependipity and often enough to get the battle rez. Sentinel is the glue for most healing specs for clerics.

/bump so that Mijjah and Sofie read it again...

/bump Still hoping that Mijjah and Sofie re-read this post!

I have to admit I'm really beginning to like my 51 point purifier build. Spiritual Conflaguration and Fiery Blessing are two of my new favorite abilities. I'm not sure if I could live without them as a main healer now. Naturally, where the purifier breaks down is when the tank loses aggro containment and multiple members of the group start taking damage. That's when my mouse really starts moving and I start sweating! With the remaining 15 points in warden I still get my Healing Spray -> Healing Current -> Deluge combo, plus Healing Flood helps suppliment Surging Flames to give me limited group healing.

/bump Still hoping that Mijjah and Sofie re-read this post!

Nice my PvP build is pretty much the same! I dug up a photo. This was when I was leveling.

My build is fairly simple, Wolf! http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=10Gje..EREtfstsR.xE I solo heal for my team's t1 dungeons, and we're about to move up to t2s. Hope this helps.

Fog, thanks for this! This looks build looks right up my alley. It's what I seem to be most comfortable playing. Hope you don't mind if I copy? :)