Healer build video guide for beginner / intermediate players - 17 favored soul 3 fighter

[woq]

Why this was made: not enough healers on Khyber for pug raids. I found myself often logging on this toon even when I wanted to play something else simply because that was what the raid group needed even at 11/12. I hope this will encourage others to make and enjoy alt healers as well.

Warning: long, unedited footage just me going off the top of my head after first thinking about it and doing a testrun beforehand, but should contain helpful information for those interested in more active healing playstyle for questing involving how to prevent yourself and teammates getting damaged instead of just healing after damage occurs. 1-15 points/race/skills/enhancements, roughly ~8:50 for close wounds, 17-24 mechanics that apply to any healer for the most part, not just fvs; 24-35ish destinies => spells => feats => reaper points. 45 => gear; 47-49 AC demonstration, 1:00-1:02 clickies, end

It is not without it's mistakes or oversights but it should cover most to get you started without feeling lost in the woods for endgame healing/trees/destinies/gear for a favored soul regardless if you go pure & warsoul or beacon & ftr/pala splash. I don't mention mimic cloaks or go through filigrees with much detail as some examples of oversights nor do I mention pre-healing as a strategy - but can't fit everything in a video and I only have one faulty brain.

Video is skimmable, and there are other good build guides for non-video format in ones provided by Dom and Rabidfox that go about the fvs healer a little bit differently. Should still provide some different insights even if you've looked at those guides especially in the gameplay mechanics department.

I can do a gameplay video at some point if that would be helpful.

Hope it helps.

 

[woq]

Some added notes:

I mention maximize as something I should have, and that is even better if you drop the Consec point hog and go EA instead to have more points in Primal for spell point conservation efforts in longer struggleventures - having played that before you can run full time with maximize + empower on for generic R10 questing and never run out.

Why I'm not running that - It's simply not needed in my experience. Heals are big enough and the R10 quest parties that struggle tend to struggle with damage not my heals, hence the consecration variant and the consecration one works better for offtanking or maintanking lower difficulty raids.

!! GRIND OUT SPELL ABSORBS OR TRADE FOR JEW CLOAKS !!. Big thing to forget to mention, shame on me. THTH (Too Hot To Handle, a fun raid in Sharn) runes for gloves // the annoying grindable trinkets & scarabs // Epic GH for jeweled cloak // Legendary Phiarlan Cloak for another cloak swap. This healer has scarabs and double cloaks, no gloves or the pale ioun trinkets for now.

Pre-healing: you can pop a a cure mass serious wounds on top of your party when they engage the pack around when you expect the mobs to retaliate / attack.

As you play healer more, you'll get used to the "timing" of when mobs wake up and hit the party; popping an aoe heal of some sort there will still give you enough time to throw another heal before they hit again - often applying rejuvenation cocoon to give them hp padding as well -, but often enough your first heal heals the damage done by their first hit when timed right and makes it less likely for them to get hit multiple times and die. If timed wrong, your second heal will still land before the damage from second hit from any single mob comes in. => Good strategy for reaper questing where you're not in danger of running out of spell points anyway to make sure your melees don't get firing squaded or piled on.

 

[woq]

Heres the build in action where I try to explain what I'm doing as I'm doing it. Finally got a nice oppourtunity to record some gameplay.

R2 vod with Thund on a bow build

 

[Ying]

Good stuff. I run a similar first life healer and it performs well in reaper raids.

Props for the All Your Base reference.

 

[woq]

Got a request for a writeup, might as well bump here even though this is more appropriate for the FVS build thread stuff.

For my current version that I'm playing:
Half-Elf
17 fvs 3 ftr
1-20: fvs levels at 1, 3-17, 20. ftr at 2, 18, 19.

Skills: Max Heal, 1 tumble, 1 jump, take intimidate/jump on Fighter levels: if you have intelligence tomes or more stat points, put more points into Intimidate/Tumble.
StatS: 18 con 16 cha 10 int: extra points go to dex/int if you have more than 28 starting points according to preference.
Level ups go to Constitution.

Undying Court religion thanks to Elf, for Undying Call combat rez if people need to be resurrected but are on reaper/raid timer

Feats:
1 empower, half-elf dilettante: Paladin (for saves)
2 shield mastery (free from fighter)
3 quicken + grace of battle
6 maximize + energy absorb fire
7 deity feat: undying call
8 fvs stout of heart (hp)
9 mental toughness
11 Absorb: Acid
12 improved shield mastery
15 enlarge spell
16 Absorb: Cold
18 empower healing spell and fighter bonus: Greater shield mastery
21 wellspring of power
22 epic spell power: positive
24: improved mental toughness
25: perfect shield mastery
27: epic fortitude
28 fount of life
30 defensive tumble, scion of celestia
31 deific warding
33 intensify, epic mental toughness or epic damage reduction. Up to you, I went epic mental
34 legendary toughness

Upcoming 36: take one of the 33 options

Enhancements:
35 Beacon of Hope - take the heal stuff and hopes, skip raise dead and stats. Close wounds is REALLY important and have all SLAs enabled for it!
24 angel of vengeance for the summon archon: this is for snapshotting LGS debuffs, efficient metamagic:quicken and giving the tank crown of retribution vs multihitting bosses to give enemy significant light immunity reduction
13 stalwart defender (for tanky stance + tanky competence hp)
8 vanguard (for deflect and Shield Smash, for +50 prr/mrr when tanking).

If you don't care for angel of vengeance or need more oomph for certain raids, move those points to HAMP in racial tree and Falconry for sprint boost/quality hp - or Feydark for more prr/mrr while your shield buffs are up. I swap my build around sometimes depending on what team needs. I really like the option of snapshotting ash/dust/ooze (as teammates need) on archon to help with damage, or to have Archon of Vengeance to passively deal Light dmg on Relentless boss to take his DR away.

Epic destinies:
37 unyielding (take Renewal, the tanky stuff, and the taunting shield stuff, and SLA:Resurrection : having two rez is important for recoveries and when multiple ppl die at once => timers run out same time, u want more than 1 rez)
15 Primal - mantle, evergreen, shardstorm + upgrade, rest whatever
17 divine crusader - fortification, consecration, crusade, and how dare you strike me to buff friendly dmg and have more tick heals.

NOTE: Unyielding Celestial Mandate and Vanguard Shield Smash are on separate cooldowns, which means by taking both you stack up battle guard up much faster and more reliably when needed, but it's really really unnecessary and if you dont like it, just skip all this stuff and block/heal instead.

Spells: as on video, take heals and remove debilitating effect -type spells like greater restoration and restoration. Take obscuring mist for control/concealment 20%, as well as a number of buffs and Death Pact.

Metamagics: keep everything up on every SLA ability that you can, most importantly turn everything on for Close Wounds! Don't keep everything up for every heal you use, especially not the overkill ones or stuff you only use for small heals: my suggestion would be to keep quicken/empower heal/enlarge full time up, and keep empower/maximize/intensify off, and only selectively for spells you want to use them on activate them like every SLA and Mass Moderate.