Healing Tips

[niuniu]

Originally Posted by Kaey

LOL - niccccce. You don't happen to be the warrior I was monking for in Guild Wars do you :P His elite skill was Word of Healing and started healing me when I took damage :S

haha ye olde WAMMOs

:facepalm:

[Hamboygler]

Thanks for the useful post.

[PilGrim]

Thank you for topic. Everything is accurate and sorted well. Easy to get it. Thanks. =)

[Kaey]

Thanks for the responses guys! Glad people found the thread useful!

[LaPengo]

Wall of Text

Each game has its own Healing pros and Healing cons.
There are some things I wouldn't do in this game, but would do in others.


Heal over Time Skills (HoTs):
- While in WAR and WoW, HoTs are quite valuable. From my experience so far, Aion does not favor HoTs at all. Taking the Cleric for example, at lvl25, Light of Rejuvenation II Level 4 will heal 34 every 2 seconds. In large scale PvP and extremely hard hitting PvE Monsters, this barely keeps any damage off! If you need to get someone healed up, use a Direct Heal first. This is NOT to say HoTs do not help in the long run, but they aren't as effective as they are in other MMOs.

- Time to use HoTs:
A) Before PvE Pull (Yourself and/or Tank) is generally a good idea. You basically want the Buff on them at all times, that way they get a constant stream of HP from start to finish of damage they are taking. As well, don't place another HoT on them when the first hasn't run out. This is just a waste of Mana, you want it to run for its full 30 second duration.

B) Ally takes small amount of damage. This comes from AoE Splash damage, self inflicted and Damage over Time (DoT) damage from Curses, Bleeds, Hexes, etc. This is usually not the main Tank or target of Damage, but a side Ally. They are usually not in immediate danger of dying, thus casting direct heals on them only takes away seconds of healing the main target. HoTs are Instant Cast, therefore only take the Global Cooldown to employ before you may move on to the next. Additionally, most of the time they don't need the full Health from a Direct heal so its also a waste of Mana.

C) Others or "Top off". There's probably a few more scenarios. But they usually fall under what I call "Top off" or even B. Which is just to cover the missing health of non-endangered target or for running away from Mobs.

While in Aion HoTs are considerably smaller in benefit compared to other MMO counterparts, HoTs should still always be used in such a way.

*NOTE* This may differ with Chanters, with their AoE HoT.


Direct Heals:
So far we have Radiant Cure II, Healing Light I, II, III, Healing Wind I. (Flash of Recovery if you have the Stigma Socketed).
In all MMOs, direct heals can be sorted in 3 Categories: Long Cast, Fast Cast, and Area Cast.
As someone mentioned, WoW (Priests) was Greater Heal, Flash Heal and Prayer of Healing. (Not mentioning others or Talent Tree skills here).

Basically, in MOST cases. You want to be using your Long Cast (Radiant Cure II), to get the maximum heal affect. Unlike every other MMO though, there is a 6 second cooldown on this skill! So you'll probably end up using Healing Light III more. In fact, Healing Light III only takes 57 mana!!! This is by far the lowest (Percent wise of Mana) cost for a Fast Heal in every MMO I've played (Example sake :: 50 mana of 3000 mana is nothing)
In PvE, this is not so much a problem. In PvP, long casts are generally not used. The extra second of casting could cost your Ally their life, and potentially yours. While the overall efficiency is better, you're not looking for efficiency in PvP. You're looking to survive!

As for efficiency, Radiant Cure II is the most efficient direct heal (so far IMO). The way Aion scales its Mana and Healing pretty much makes the Healing Lights efficiency work on itself. Theres some crazy math but lets not get into it. Generally, you'd probably want Healing Light III and II on your bar (Healing Light I becomes obsolete and less efficient at about Healing Light II Level 4)
You should NOT use Area Cast (Healing Wind I) unless you and 1 other person are in need of the full Heal. If 3 or more need even 75% of the heal however, it is worth it. It costs ~2 Radiant Cures to heal what Healing Wind heals for, but only in 3.5 seconds, while 2 Radiant Cures take 9 Seconds (Initial cast, 6 CD, 3 second cast).


Heal Matching:
My term for Efficiency, taken from Rev Matching on Standard Automobiles. Same principle here.

If your tank is taking ~150dmg every 2 seconds. Theres no point in casting continuously for 300 Heals every 2 seconds.
Instead, when he is about to take his 2 hit (4 seconds), aim to have your heal hit then. So in short, start your heal as soon as he gets hit the first time. This leaves you with 2 seconds every heal to do misc instants, such as Dispelling, HoTing a ally, summoning Divine Spirit or even another Heal somewhere else. (Or Regen time, if you want)

I know its a rough example, but once you heal enough you just know the right amount/time to do it at.

Similarly, NEVER WAIT till they TAKE the damage before STARTING your cast. This can cause wipes and many deaths. You should be starting the cast when they are BEFORE they take the hit. I take the 50% HP example used in an earlier post.
If you start your big heal when they hit 50%, thats 3 seconds of MORE damage they are taking before they receive treatment. During this time, they could get Crit, nuked down, etc etc. Very dangerous situation. And your HoTs can only cover so much of the damage.


PvP Healing:
90% of the time, you will be HoTing to top anyone off, dispelling and casting your Fast Heal. Alot of Clerics I've seen like to "add some DPS" to a target when they should be Healing!!! Remember that almost all the classes have "burst" chains that can easily take out someone with 75% HP. In PvP, top them off!!! It only takes 3 seconds for a 80% Assassin to be a dead Assassin from a coordinated Nuke. Heals before Needles please! (Sad attempt at poking at bad Medics in TF2)

Do NOT be afraid to use your Root! Clerics have been given a Rooting ability, something I loathed from other healing classes as a Priest in WoW. If your Sorc is under heavy attack from a Melee, it only takes 1 second for you to Root them, giving space for your Sorc to get away and for you to shoot some heals off on them without more damage on them. Its on a 10 second Cooldown as well, very spammable. Also great for catching runners.

Luckily for us, theres no "direct interrupt" in Aion. Instead we have a Random interrupt system, which is good and bad.
Good in the sense, you no longer have to Juke any heals in PvP to bait Interrupts and bad in the sense you could be interrupted by a fly landing on your shoulder. It is this one reason the quicker the heal, the BETTER. Less cast time, is less chance for interrupt. Do not be afraid and stay calm when under fire!

Remember, as the Healer there will be 2 things that happen to you:
1. Focusfired First!
2. Crowd Controlled.
For focusfirst, use all your tools to make space for yourself and to keep yourself alive. Instant, Pots, and quick 2sec Heals are your friends here. Root the enemy and dispel yourself and keep those HoTs on yourself. As for Crowd Control, better hope it fails and/or someone else can Dispel you...

As for movement, always move, whenever necessary. If they leave you alone, great! Stand still and heal! But this is 90% not gonna be the case. They will eventually do something to you (See above). In which case, keep moving! Use your Roots and HoTs to cover. A moving healer is harder to kill! As well, don't forget Aion has Directional Buffs. Constantly side-strafing will increase your Dodge! And most importantly, do NOT BE AFRAID TO FLY (Abyss Combat). Flying gives you Movement speed, Healing Boost, etc. etc. You can outrange Casts easily flying, increase your survivability.

Also of note - Concentrate on Survival over Efficiency in PvP. Its better to Overheal by 50% than it is to die.

PvE Healing:
ALWAYS have the HoT on target taking Damage. If Agro gets to squishy, Root or quickly hit Healing Light (BEFORE they get hit). Clothies can get hit for 500-800 easily, and you should be prepared to see them take huge amounts of Damage quickly. Assuming they were close enough to get hit or have agro.

General Rotation (From lvl 10-25 or something similar):
1. HoT (Skip if already active)
2. Slow Heal (or most efficient per HP loss)
3A. Quick Heal
-B. Dispel
-C. Contribute to DPS
-D. Regen Mana (Do nothing, use Mana Treatment, etc.)


Mana:
Save your Pots and DP Skill for emergencies.
Mana Treatment is fairly cheap source of +Mana.
DO NOT USE Refresh Mind during combat. You're asking to die if you're getting hit. And HoTs alone can't cover the HP loss.
Best way of using Refresh Mind is to gain Mana back from killing mobs. You barely lose HP and (almost) gain full Mana if you Refresh Mind + Sit.
In a nutshell, you shouldn't really have Mana Problems... At least for now.


Dispelling:
Please, dispel. Many healers are drones that hit their Healing Light key for life. Dispels have spammable in Aion and remove (from what I've seen, needs confirmation) all negative buffs on the character in 1 go. Since they are spammable, you can dispel (Mathematically 4, realistically 3) players before a HUGE curse or DoT ticks. Best example in game so far, one of the Krall by the Krall Garrison in Verticen. After a while he will drop a very large spike trap that after 2 seconds and beyond, deal massive Damage to whoever was in it, if they aren't dispelled. Instead of casting heals, you can spam dispel 3 or so members (Tank, other healers, low HP classes first!) to prevent some serious damage! Preventitive Healing is as good as Regular healing.

In short, If you can dispel something, DO IT.


Rage / Rant:
- If you run behind the pillar chasing someone and Heal stops casting, don't blame us.
- If you run ahead out of range, don't blame us.
- Fellow Priests, stop wearing Cloth. Aion Magic Boost doesn't help Healing. You take significantly more Physical Damage, and WILL get 3 shot by Assassin's, Rangers and Gladiators. You're no good dead, except free Abyss Points.

I can't think of anything else right now.
Feel free to add/disagree.

[jimmothy]

I just wanna say thank you to this topic and every other topic striving to make a world of better healers.

I've played different games over the years:
Final Fantasy 11 - Paladin
Guild Wars - Dervish
Ragnarok Online - Whitesmith

I personally wanted to go for something with some support, so I started looking at Chanter. Then I heard of their sub-par damage, and sub-par healing, so I decided to go with something that excelled at a certain role. Then I read this guide and others in these forums and decided to become full support and heals. It'll give me a chance to look at the scenery and bosses too!

I'm just kinda worried that I won't be able to do the job properly after playing melee/magic roles for years. I guess we'll find out, I'll definitely take these hints to mind :]

[Novadove]

next time when u guys do higher lvl mess pvps, keep yourself alive 1st. your death = formation break = game over.

in c-aion, everyone almost always instantly targets the clerics.

[Kaey]

Originally Posted by Novadove

next time when u guys do higher lvl mess pvps, keep yourself alive 1st. your death = formation break = game over.

in c-aion, everyone almost always instantly targets the clerics.

That would be why I told people to watch their health bars as well - no dead healer is a useful healer

Also, thank you for your post LaPengo, many of that information is very useful. When I have time I will structure your tips into the original post if that is OK with you.

[LaPengo]

Do what you wish. No need to ask.
Things may change come 40+ levels, but oh well.

[Kaey]

Sorry for the long delay LaPengo - I'm finding myself short on time so its taking longer than I thought to put your information into the thread.