Robry / Sara - this is my main healing spec

Chloromancer (40) / Warlock (26) / Archmage (0)

For when I need to maximize my dps I use Nature's Fury when Opportunity procs.. and entropic veil when I have charge.

tag for future reference

Warlock (32) / Chloromancer (34) / Archmage (0) I use this one I find it has more survivability and might compete for group healing, b/c I can put on wild growth too. The one point in extra after nuke dot was for shoe procs but since that's nerfed not sure it's worth -- should put the point back into flourish crit You are doing really well so in no way a criticism, just throwing mine out there too. But since the discussion was how to improve dps as chloro, this build does that a bit more. And for Robry, use sac life and entropic veil whenever they are up. Also, cast dark touch and life leech dot when you are able (this dot counts as a heal toward shoe procs but i think you use the kb one anyway)

@Sara, Yep, I nearly went for a very similar build minus 'Wild Growth' as I don't like the limited range it has. With a couple of non-raiding days this weekend I started playing around with my old chloro build and I found a few interesting tidbits that really got me re-tooling my chloro. First this is what I ended up with (although I may tweak this by a point or two depending how what my healing parses look like vs. Lord Greenscale): Chloromancer (39) / Warlock (27) I ran some parses to see how I could maximize my dps and my heals. The first thing I found was that Improved Warlock Armor did absolutely nothing for my spell/heal dps. Second, Nature's corrosion was about a 100 pt dps boost for me. (I had looked at removing this for more points for a necro/chloro build and a SC/Chloro build - both of which I could not get nearly as much dps out of while maintaining a reasonably viable healing rotation. As insanely complex as a SC / Chloro build is.. there may be a way to make it work but it is beyond my ability/patience to figure it out). --more to follow-- I added Neddra's Torture and combined it with Dark Touch in a macro. Neddra's Torture gives a 3% magic damage boost and previously I had completely removed Dark Touch from my rotation. (With the things you taught me about macros it made it much more convenient to include it now..! = DPS boost yay .. albeit a small one) I also made a macro for Ruin and Withering Vines. (Both of which I rely heavily on in my rotation) Doing this freed up 2 spots on my hot bar for other spells and let me use 'opportunity' procs much more efficiently. Here is the cool thing about these two macro's.. keep in mind in very demanding heal encounters I will not use these 4 skills because of the 1.5 skill cooldowns. For me they are strictly "opportunity" spells I use when needing more dps and enough time in the encounter to be doing so. Ok so why they are cool macro's for me: Neddra's Torture is a 1.0 sec cast with a 20 sec cooldown. Dark Touch is insta cast with the 1.5 sec cooldown. Ruin is insta-cast with a 15 sec cooldown, Withering Vines is 1.5 sec cast with 1.5 sec cooldown. **When making the macro's it is important that the first spell cast in the macro has a cooldown longer than 1.5 seconds for it to work right. (For those interested in making a macro) Example: line 1 - #show Neddra's Torture line 2 - suppressmacrofailures line 3 - cast Neddra's Torture line 4 - cast Dark Touch Now with 5/5 pts in warlock 'Opportunity' - these macro's make it very nice to take advantage of 'opportunity' procs (again.. when I am not needing to use the proc's for casting Nature's Touch or Vile Spores) If Neddra's Torture is not currently affecting the Mob/Boss.. I will use the proc to cast it and can immediately follow it with Dark Touch. If Neddra's Torture is already on the Mob/Boss.. I cast Ruin and Withering Vines. (Ruin will not burn your 'opportunity' proc.. and follow it with a second key press for an insta-cast Withering Vines.) For survivability I took 1 point and put it into Shadow Life. For 1 point, it is just too good to pass up. It is insta-cast and can save your bacon without burning one of your heals thus saving them for your raid members. In the Chloro tree I am still debating which of these two skills (Raised in Nature and Call of Spring) I want more of. The endurance buff of Raised in Nature .. point for point is probably the best endurance buff you can get. But remember, I want to maximize my healing power. Every point into Call of Spring just makes your heals even better. With my current gear 2/3 Raised in Nature keeps my self-buffed health above the 6k mark which in some dungeons can be essential to survive that massive nuke or nasty DoT. I may pull 1 more point out of Raised in Nature and put it into Call of Spring if my gear improves and keeps me above 5.5k health. Wild Growth and Choke are very tempting and for Expert Dungeon's, especially T1's, they would be very handy tools in your toolkit. I simply avoided Wild Growth because most (not all) Bosses have either a frontal/rear cleave or some sort of AOE to worry about. The 32/34 build is a very solid build.

» Edited on: 2011-05-31 21:09:38 On the practice dummy I can sustain 350-360 dps with my 'DPS' rotation: (self buffed so with raid buffs it should be another 50-60 sustained dps) Radiant Spores Ruin* / Withering Vine (be careful opening with Ruin - if the tank doesn't have agro or needs time to build it you may not want to use the macro combo .. instead I open with Withering Vines) Neddra's Torture / Dark Touch Vile Spores Vile Spores Vile Spores **After the 2nd Vile Spores - I am watching my DoT's and DeBuffs on the mob. If 'opportunity' procs.. I will cast the macro for whichever one (Neddra's Torture or Withering Vines) that is about to expire. My heavy Heal rotation: Radiant Spores Vile Spores Vile Spores Nature's Touch My healing rotation can vary a little depending on a few criteria: a) How hard does the Boss's first Hit on the Tank hit for b) How well does the Tank mitigate damage If the Boss opens with a Heavy Hit or my Tank is a little squishy at first my rotation may look like this: Radiant Spores Nature's Touch Vile Spores Bloom Nature's Touch (when it is ready) Lastly, I've been asked a couple times about Spell Power vs. Spell Crit. For a Healer, you definately want more Spell Power. I do not know why, but on parses I have run.. my damaging spells will crit 2 times more often then my heal spells. You are much better off maxing out Circle of Life if you want crit heals on a Chloro. Sorry for the long winded post and Sara, I know you already know most of this but wanted to explain it as best I could for those who might be learning the mage healer.

» Edited on: 2011-05-31 21:29:14

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» Edited on: 2011-05-31 21:47:22

» Edited on: 2011-05-31 22:23:35

I really appreciate the time put into explaining all of this, very much. I am comfortable healing T1s, but solo healing T2s is very dungeon and encounter specific in my confidence to keep my group standing. I would like to hear any advice on handling cleanse heavy fights? I have tried macros like: cast @mouseover Nature's Cleansing and all I seem to end up doing is cleansing myself. I am so frustrated with being able to quickly target a group/raid member and then getting off that emergency heal or cleanse or other ability fast enough to turn the tide in a fight. Any advice? I do request raid frames and can click target a member from there and then find the right cast and hit it, but that just feels very slow and clunky to me.

» Edited on: 2011-06-01 08:18:25

» Edited on: 2011-06-01 08:19:03

REALLY interesting thread, thanks Cordite. I've been teaching myself to heal as Chloro/Archon on my lowbie mage Firebuck, having always done Chloro/Warlock. Cool to see folks still like Chloro/Warlock. The news about Warlock Armor not affecting heals/DPS is HUGE. Wow, that will really change my spec! Re Shadow Life and Raised in Nature: both affect the size of your Essence Surge. You can't always afford a GCD for Shadow Life before an Essence Surge, but if I expect a big drop in the tank's health (Boss first hit) I'll pop it just before the pull. Question #1: Do you know which heals Call of Spring affects these days? It used to be just Bloom, Flourish, Withering Vines. (Maybe Stream of Reclamation too, but I never use that.) Question #2: Do you find Blight useful? Now that I know Warlock Armor isn't helping it seems worth going for!

@Wildflower, I share your targeting frustrations. For me, I found mouseover macros more 'fail' than 'help'. (Folks who - unlike me - mostly use the mouse for skills may feel differently.) The one targeting trick I do use is two hotkeys mapped for Focus target. One just sets my Focus to be current target (usually my main heal target). You have to reset your focus in quite a few different circumstances so I just like having this on a handy hotkey. The other retargets my focus. I use this a LOT. When I click off to cleanse or heal someone else I have a very quick way to get back to my main heal target. Also, I prefer to DPS through my heal target but lots of skills seems to swap targets so I'm healing through my DPS target (ugh). I can use it to pick up the tank's new target when he switches, or the tank himself when the mob switches targets. I use both these hotkeys as a DPSer too. Fast way to get back to the boss, without mousing, after tabbing off to clear adds.

Thanks Lakshmi! I have a focus macro I use to set as well but have found like you that many times when I go to cast something on a creature for damage, it will retarget me to that creature off of my target through person. I also find that target through can be tough if a tank has to switch targets a lot in order to pull or maintain agro, etc, because it then interrupts my cast and thus my heals. I made a couple of macros this morning to try out next time I am healing that I hope will help, after setting my focus in a group. They are just one liners, 3 very simple macros, but give me a stronger feeling of handling those 'eeeep' moments. :) /cast @focus Bloom /cast @focus Essence Surge /cast @focus Nature's Cleansing I am also now adding the macro to re-target my focus, I think that will be a great benefit too, thank you Lakshmi.

Ah heck, I had a nice reply I just typed out but my login expired and it didnt post so heres the short version: If you can get a mouseover Cleanse working realiably.. use it. I personally have not set one up yet. With server lag and some stacking curses/DoT's (like Bloodwalker in AP) I prefer to know for sure what target I have selected and eliminate as much of the unknown as possible when it comes to cleanses. The hardest cleansing fight for me as a Chloro is Caelia in Charmer's Caldera. Even with the 1.2 changes this is still a 2 healer / cleanser fight. *Cleanse the pinkish/purple DoT first. It is the Damage producing spell. *Cleanse the white/blue/yellow 'stun' second (unless it is on your backup healer.. then cleanse it ASAP) Nature's Cleansing uses a crap ton of mana and between server lag and possible stacks you may run short of mana in a hurry so having mana pots of some sort are important. The fight with Caelia is a matter of luck in some cases. The stun gets cast on two people and spreads to players nearby. I can't even count the number of times I was stunned and DoT'd at the same time. When that happens its up to your other healer to save your butt and the party.

» Edited on: 2011-06-01 11:11:28

» Edited on: 2011-06-01 11:13:26

I believe you are correct about Call of Spring only affecting Bloom, Flourish, and Withering Vines. If I remember correctly, this was something that was realized shortly after Rift went live. As for Blight I don't really like it to much. It is only 8sec in duration and has a long cooldown. In fights where you want a heal debuff I feel the party is better off with a purge or essence link from the necro line.

» Edited on: 2011-06-01 12:28:36

» Edited on: 2011-06-01 12:33:49

I just wanted to say that on my DPS rotation theres alot of what-ifs. Radiant Spores Ruin* / Withering Vine Neddra's Torture / Dark Touch Vile Spores Vile Spores Vile Spores When opportunity does proc there are alot of options: Nature's Touch Nature's Fury (gives a good dps boost but hard to test it on the practice dummy because it bounces to up to two other targets which skews your single target DPS numbers) Ruin/Withering Vine combo Neddra's Torture/Dark Touch combo Vile Spores Choosing which to use is very situation dependent.. i.e. if the Tank needs a major heal or if cooldowns have not expired on one of your spells..etc. Obviously, maxing out DPS on a Chloro will always be a challenge. I am still practicing getting the most bang for my buck out of the Chloro and still hit the wrong buttons at times.

» Edited on: 2011-06-02 20:09:18

I spent an hour on the practice dummies yesterday, specifically testing Nature's Corrosion with/without Nedra's Influence (which is supposed to boost dot damage). Nedra's Influence did not increase the Ruin/Vile Spores dot portion from Nature's Corrosion. (I didn't test it for Withering Vines, guess I should!) Do you spec into for Dark Touch? Cordite - any chance of another thread about your DPS spec and approach? :) I've been practicing SC/EM but I have lots of doubts that I'm doing it right, both for multi-target and single target encounters. How/when do you get mana? Also, what's the best approach for single target with nearby stuff that can't be touched by AoEs.

» Edited on: 2011-06-03 08:12:04

Hmm, maybe it only affects death damage DoT's (Dark Touch/Life Leech)? I really hate the generic descriptions sometimes. Without testing them for yourself, it can be hard to know what is actually working and what isn't or possibly broken. (like Improved Warlock Armor) I have not tested Neddra's Influence specifically for that. Deciding where to find 3 points might be the hard part. I previously had dropped Dark Touch completely from my rotation mainly because Life Giving Veil gives the most healing benefit from life spells. I only added it again because of the convenience that the macro provided (especially when I'm fat fingering all the wrong spells during a fight. Can't hurt too much if I hit Dark Touch when I meant to hit another spell.. I just have to eat the 1.5s cooldown as long as I am getting Neddra's Torture off with it.) As for the SC/EM build.. you really need to get Saralandrielle or Inixia to explain them best. I still don't have a full understanding of how to effectively use the electified charges with Lightning field. My SC build is currently a 51 SC / 15 Warlock combo to take advantage of 'opportunity' for fast casting AOE damage and Consumption (for a purge and mana return). It manages decent single target dps (550-600 ish) but my build does not have the spike/burst damage of the SC/EM build. My AOE rotation is: Hailstorm Lightning Storm 2 x Lightning Field 2 x Forked Lightning Then I just repeat 2 x Lightning Field followed by 2 x Forked Lightning. (Sara or Inixia can explain the formula to make best use of your charges but I don't keep track of the number of mobs too well during a fight.. probably because I'm used to playing Chloro so much). When Hailstorm is ready again I start the cycle over. I have also been practicing with Building Storm..when it hits 10 charges, I pop Absolute Zero and Artic Blast. (Sometimes you can use your opportunity proc to cast the Artic Blast saving your Absolute Zero.. but I have never had a fight last long enough to actually build 10 charges twice and use it with Art Blast a second time. At 10 charges, Artic Blast can hit Really, Really Hard! I've had it crit for 3.5k on mobs in its area of effect) *P.S. I use the Life:mana and Reconstruct on my SC for mana from the Warlock tree. SC's are mana hogs!

» Edited on: 2011-06-03 15:28:49

» Edited on: 2011-06-03 15:32:01