7 replies to this topic

[Emilizzard]

 

Introduction

 

This guide has been written mainly concerning grinding, as that is currently the biggest portion of the game. Many things about healing will also transfer to other PvE content (such as boss fights) fairly well. I have no experience in PvP, so I won't be able to help there - however, once you get familiar with the skills themselves, a PvP guild should be able to help you learn that part.

 

If you have any questions about how healing works, just ask and I'll do my best to answer!

 

Please Note: I am not posting this topic to discuss whether skills are good or bad regarding balancing, and such posts belong in other topics. This is merely to provide help with learning the current state of these classes. In addition, I have written this based on my experiences with a bit of outside help; different people play differently, so it may not work the best for everybody. I hope it provides a good starting point.

 

Check Your Tank

 

While not all parties need a tank, it is generally a good idea to have one. A tank will be able to withstand hits easier due to their high HP, Defense, Dodge, Parry, and/or Damage Reduction. Advanced players will often play a DPS or Heal type character as if it has the tank benefits, but it is usually not a good idea if you are still learning to heal with your character. If you're unsure what any buff (or debuff) icon is, you can hover over it and a tooltip will pop up.

 

Check your tank's buff list to see it they have the proper buffs, as follows:

- Beastmaster: Grizzly Form (this is the most obvious one, as the character will appear to be a giant black bear)

- Monk: Steel Body

- Knight: Aura Shield

- Warrior: Aura Shield and Defender

 

These buffs give your tank an increase in:

- HP: Allows more hits to be taken before death. 

- Defense: Allows your tank to take less damage from the hits they will be tanking. 

- Threat generation: allows the tank to better keep threat off of you, the healer, and the DPS.

The buff tooltip will tell you exactly how much of an increase they get in what areas.

 

Learn Threat Mechanics

 

- Refer to Arbalist's guide for general mechanics

- In general, AoE and HoT skills generate no threat (except Highness Heal)

- Healing skills generate "area" threat, which means that all monsters in range get threat from the skill. 

- If your tank is tanking properly, most problems can be easily avoided

- Priest's Meditatio and Sorcerer's Meditation (both passive skills) can become a problem with threat. Since they increase the heal value when the skill is a critical, this can cause the values to go too high, and will generate unnecessary threat.

- Threat is calculated using the total amount of heal generated, even if it is not used. This means that if your skill creates 20k worth of healing, but your target is only missing 3k (and only has 10k total HP), the threat will be calculated based on the 20k value. Using the formula below, we see that 5k threat will have been generated - more than the amount healed. 

- Threat formula:

(total heal amount) * 0.25 = (threat amount)

 

Learn Your Skills

 

You should learn your class' heal and support skills available, as well as when and how to use them. DPS skill information has been included for hybrid builds.

 

A note about HoTs (Renovatio and Cure): Don't spam the skill on the same target. It will cause the target to receive NO healing effect from the skill, as the first tick of the heal doesn't happen until 2 seconds after it is cast, so each recast of the skill will restart the timer. If you need to renew the buff, and the target is low on health, do so after you see their HP increase from a prior tick. Be careful when renewing HoT buffs, as choosing the wrong time can actually kill the player you are attempting to heal.

 

See the section for your specific class, or look at them all to decide what to choose:

- Acolyte & Priest

- Sorcerer

- Soulmaker

 

Versions

 

v1.0: May 21; original post

v1.1: May 23; added a note about Sorcerer's lack of ML heal skill increase

v1.2: May 25; added some extra notes about HoT skills.

Edited by Emilizzard, 25 May 2015 - 01:07 PM.

[Emilizzard]

 

Hello, and welcome to Acolyte & Priest training. Here you will get a glimpse of what your duties will be, as well as advice on how to perform those duties. Please be aware that other methods may work just as well. I hope I am able to help you begin your journey. 

 

I am going to include some Acolyte advice as an assistance to new Acolytes who have just begun. Because Acolyte is a starting class, they only have a few basic skills available to them; however, these skills can be very powerful if used correctly, and are the very core of a Priest's abilities.

 

Priests gain some of the most powerful healing and support skills. Priests are good for on-the-go targeted healing and for providing support in emergency situations. These powerful skills can generate a lot of threat, which may cause enemies to turn and attack you. Learning to control your skills and partying with a good tank can help reduce the danger to you.

 

Non-Aggro Healing Skills

- [Acolyte] Renovatio: HoT skill for 12 seconds. This is your main healing skill for grinding. I always make sure the tank has this, and will apply it to DPS as needed.

- Sanctuary: AoE HoT skill. All allies within the area gain a HoT buff effect. You are unable to act while keeping Sanctuary active; I like to put Renovatio on all party members (tank last for the duration), then put up Sanctuary. If needed, you can stop it my moving a little bit to provide targeted healing, but I usually find that it holds up well even with only 1 point. 

- Aspersio + Sanctuary: AoE HoT with HP increase. The same as regular Sanctuary, but it also increases the targets' total HP amount for the duration of the buff effect.

 

Aggro Healing Skills

 

- [Acolyte] Heal: As a priest, this isn't really necessary since you will have many other skills. I like to keep it on my skill bar for times when Highness Heal is on cooldown. The reason I don't like this skill is because of the cast time.

- [Acolyte] Highness Heal: Powerful heal skill with no cast time, it also heals allies within 5 meters of the initial target (small AoE). It has a short cooldown.

- [Acolyte] Aspersio + Higness Heal:  This is a regular Highness Heal, but the target will gain an extra HoT (you should be using Renovatio mainly). It is useful for when you know you are about to go into a tough situation. If you use it early enough before going into battle, no threat will be generated (based on target distance from monsters). 

- Coluceo Heal: Completely recovers the target's HP. This is your true emergency skill; if you have a good team, you might never need it. It is good for situations like gear breaking or the tank losing aggro. This skill will generate threat based on how much was actually healed, as it has no base amount.

 

Extra Support Skills

- [Acolyte] Blessing: HP buff for entire party/raid, lasts 30 minutes

- [Acolyte] Resurrection: revives a dead target

- [Acolyte] Holy Water: Recovers part of your total SP, and gives 3 Holy Water points. These points allow you to use Asperio.

- [Acolyte] Asperio: when used, the next skill (within a short duration) will have a special effect added to it. This skill requires and consumes 1 Holy Water.

- Meditatio: This skill increases the amount healed when the heal is a critical. Normally, if your basic heal is 100, your critical heal would be 200 - but this passive skill increases it based on how much accuracy you have.

- Recovery: removes all(?) debuffs from comrade(s) in the targeted area. Number of comrades affected is dependent on skill level.

- Suffragium: Self-buff that increases Cast Speed.

- Angelus: Party buff that will increase Defense

- Archangel: Self-buff that increases Magic Attack Speed

- Sacrament: Self-buff with no duration. When your healing skills land as critical, those affected by the heal skill get buffs for physical and magical power. Forcing a critical with Aspersio will not activate the extra buffs. The extra buffs last for 30 seconds.

- Assumptio: Damage reduction on an allied target.

 

While Judex isn't a support skill in the traditional sense, I highly suggest it even for a full support build if you have some points left. Details are in the section below.

 

DPS Skills

 

- [Acolyte] Holy Light: This is your basic attack skill, and is available for use right away. I personally don't like it, because I prefer to remain mobile on the battleground. *Note: there is currently a bug with casting Holy Light as a target is about to die, and will prevent you from doing anything else! To prevent the bug from happening to you, please only use Holy Light if not using DoT skills and if nobody else is attacking. If the target still has a lot of HP left, it probably won't be a problem. Please be careful!*

- [Acolyte] Aspersio + Holy Light: 3 Holy Light attacks lands as Critical Hit.

- [Acolyte] Lex Divinia: This is a secondary basic attack, but allows you to be mobile while using it. The extra abilities granted by spending more points in this skill make it pretty decent; Priests also can get a bonus to this skill when they invest in the Passive skill Gloria. [Rank 2 and above] This skill lands as Critical Hit if the target's HP is below 20%. [Rank 3 and above] 3 Holy Water is obtained instantly if the enemy is killed with this skill. I personally do not use this skill because I focus on DoTs and AoE skills for DPS.

- [Acolyte] Oratio: Powerful DoT skill. Use this on an enemy (or many), and run in circles while casting Renovatio on yourself to kill quickly.

- [Acolyte] Judex: chain lightning that hits the target and nearby targets. 

- [Acolyte] Asperio + Judex: This combination is great when threat is starting to get out of control or the tank is taking too much damage. Stunning the enemies will give you a few extra seconds to heal the tank and rest of the team. 

- Credo: A second powerful DoT skill. Can be used in place of Oratio or with it depending on your needs. Credo has a larger range than Oratio, so I like to start with Credo and then use Oratio if I'm trying to pick out a monster.

- Adoramus: This is the weakest of the DoT skills, and also includes cast time.

- Magnus Exorcismus: AoE skill which deals damage over several hits. You are able to move while casting this. 

- Asperio + Magnus Exorcismus: Same as Magnus, but also applies Oratio to all targets. 

- Ray of Genesis (RoG): This is your "finisher" - it cannot be casted while moving, but deals a large amount of damage over several hits. 

- Asperio + Ray of Genesis: This is basically the same as RoG, but casted instantly.

Edited by Emilizzard, 23 May 2015 - 01:22 PM.

[Emilizzard]

 

Hey there! Interested in Sorcerer, are you? Well you're in the right spot! 

 

Sorcerers start out as Magicians, which have no heal skills. However, it's a fairly quick process to become a Sorcerer.

 

Sorcerer's main method of healing for grinding is through our AoE skills Land of Recovery and Deluge. We also have targeted heal skills and a weak HoT that will activate when a direct heal skill lands as a critical hit, but only while the caster has their Earth Emblem buff active. Note: Sorcerer's Healing & Support skills do not get upgraded upon reaching Master Level.

 

Unlike the other support classes, Sorcerer does not have a clear separation between "heal", "support", and "damage" skill trees. Instead, there is:

- Water: Damage, Heal, and Support skills

- Earth: Heal/Support skills

- Blitz: Damage skills

- Fire: Damage skills

 

Non-Aggro Heal Skills

 

- Land of Recovery: For grinding, this will be your basic healing skill. It applies a patch of grass to the ground, and any ally standing in that area will receive the healing effect.

- Deluge: Similar to Land of Recovery, but is more powerful and also increases max HP of those in the area. It displays as a white/blue glowing area; when used with LoR, the glow will be seen on the sides. This skill should be used before you think you’ll need it, as it has a long animation time. Using it at the wrong time can cause your party to die.

- Song of Earth: This isn't really a skill, but a situational Heal over Time (HoT) buff from Earth Emblem. When a healing skill lands as a critical hit, this buff is also applied to that target. Currently not very powerful.

 

Aggro Heal Skills

 

- Healing Wave: A short, relatively weak healing skill. It has a short cast time and no cooldown time. It cannot be used while moving.

- Rejuvenation: This skill has a longer delay than Healing Wave due to the animation time, and has a cooldown. This skill can be used while moving.

 

Extra Support Skills

 

- Water Emblem: heals a percent of your HP and SP. It also has some damage reduction, based on the skill's level. This is more of a self-support skill, but will help you stay alive. It is especially good while going through the Magician stage.

- Earth Emblem: increases the effect of your healing skills. If you plan on healing, this is a must.

- Earth Shield: Party buff that increases each member's defense for 30 minutes.

- Soul Bind: resurrects a dead ally target. It is recommend you save your Guardian for Soul Binding, as it can reduce the cooldown to as low as 7.5mins. With party members’ alternative guardians, you can use the skill every 10 mins whenever Soul Exhaustion expires.

- Soul Cleanse: removes some certain debuffs from a number of allies in the targeted area. The skill description states that it removes all, but it really only works for some.

- Memorize: The next 3 skills casted are casted instantly. This is great for using several skills that have cast time, such as Fireball or Jupitel Thunder for DPS.

- Meditation: This skill increases the amount healed when the heal is a critical. Normally, if your basic heal is 100, your critical heal would be 200 - but this passive skill increases it based on how much accuracy you have.

 

DPS Skills

 

Grinding (AoE skills):

- Thunderstorm: A short, 1-hit AoE. With more points, it will hit more targets and deal more damage. It is not easy to spam due to cooldown. Hitting a target with this skill provides the Electrostatic buff and it is typically used before Lord of Vermillion for the damage boost.

- Lord of Vermilion: This is your standard AoE skill. Damage from this skill will double when Electrostatic buff from Thunderstorm is active; it will also give the standard double damage on frozen targets. For this reason, an Embus pet or playing with a Wizard who has Frost Nova is helpful. The skill will always be centered on the casting Sorcerer.

Single-target skills:

- Cold Bolt: provides damage and a slow debuff on the target. If the caster is using Wind Emblem, there is a chance that the next 4 lightning skills will land as if the target is in freeze state. Check your list of buffs to see if this extra is active.

- Aqua Element: This skill is actually quite terrible, and doesn’t do much damage at all. It’s not recommended.

- Fireball: A powerful single-target skill that also applies a DoT. The DoT damage is 30% of the Fireball’s hit before the target’s Defense and Damage Reduction is calculated.

- Lightning Bolt: does a small amount of damage. This skill is instant cast, with no cooldown. You can use this while running. With 4 points in Jupitel Thunder Mastery, this has a chance to allow you to cast Jupitel Thunder without a cast time.

- Jupitel Thunder: A fairly powerful lightning skill that has a cast time and a low cooldown. Casts without cast time may occur with points in Jupitel Thunder Mastery.

- Jupitel Thunder Mastery: The first three points will allow for the chance to cast Jupitel Thunder instantly upon successful hits with Cold Bolt. At 4 points, Lightning Bolt is also given this ability. Points after 4 currently provide no extra bonus.

- Varetyr Spear: A fairly powerful lightning skill that is an instant cast, but has a longer cooldown. If the target is frozen or being treated as frozen, this skill will stun. This skill may be used while running.

 

Special thanks to Tonitrua for looking this section over!

Edited by Emilizzard, 23 May 2015 - 01:21 PM.

[Emilizzard]

 

Hi! So you're interested in being a Soulmaker? That's great!

 

Soulmakers start out as Alters, which specialize in DoT and Debuff skills. A Soulmaker specializes in what is essentially the opposite of DoTs and Debuffs - HoTs and Buffs.

 

We Soulmakers are known for our powerful Cure HoT as well as our "laser beam" skill and Doll off-hand weapon. A Soulmaker can easily keep a party well-healed without even entering combat, but also have plenty of time to add some extra heals or some DPS into the rotation. Cure allows the party to be constantly on the move due to its long range and duration. We rely mostly on Cure as our other healing abilities are not as powerful as Priests or Sorcerers. However, our extra support skills are best suited for a party that does not move much, or stays in a small area. Plus we're cute!

 

Non-Aggro Healing Skills

 

• Cure: A 30 second HoT which can be stacked up to 3 times. The power of the buff power increases every 5 seconds, so it is best to wait to renew it until it is close to running out (unless you are in danger of being stunned etc). The long duration of the buff allows for other skills to be used.
  • Renewing Cure: This is not the only way to do it, but it's how I do it and works pretty well. Start by casting Cure on yourself (or your tank/lure if they are in a hurry), then go down the list and cast Cure on all party members. When the timer on yourself reaches 1 second, start with yourself and go down the list again (if you're worried about being slow, you can aim for 3 seconds instead). Renewing a Cure that is already at 3 stacks is much more efficient than starting all over again, and doesn't leave your party members Cure-less.
• Cure Pearl: This skill is similar to an AoE. It generates 5 pearls near you, which you or party members may use to heal by running past them. The pearls have a cooldown buff that appears on a character when picked up, preventing the same character from picking up another pearl. When more points are added to the skill, this timer becomes shorter, and the pearls remain available longer. This skill is good for boss fights and grind locations such as Condors, as the party members will be remaining in one location.

 

Aggro Healing Skills

 

- Restore: This is a basic heal skill. It has cast time, unless the target has less than 20% HP, and then is casted instantly. I don't use it that often, in favor of Cure and Restoration.

- Restoration: AoE heal skill, which heals the target and will move to nearby targets. The heal amount is reduced with each target, so you should start it on the one who needs it most if possible.

 

Extra Support Skills

 

- Imposito Manus: Buff that increases the Physical and Magical Attack of party members for 30 minutes.

- Transpersonal: Buff that increases Criticals of party members for 30 minutes.

- Dispell: Chance to remove debuff on friendly target. Can use this while immobilized (ex. stun, silence).

- SoulLinks have a *very* short range, and is best not to use them while the party is moving because they break easily. They are good for stationary parties (boss fights, Condor grind, etc)

- SoulLink Concentration: Up to five targets in area. Improves Cast Time and Cooldown of self and targets.

- SoulLink Balance: One target. Increases Physical and Magical Attack of self and the target.

- SoulLink Revive: Up to five targets in area. Reduces damage received by self and targets as well as increasing the effect of received heal.

- SoulLink Devotion: One target, but may be applied to multiple at a time. Transfers damage received by target to yourself; each time this happens, your HP and target's HP is restored by an amount of the transferred damage. *This skill can save the target from death.* The target will receive a debuff for the duration of this skill that prevents the link from being applied to them again. The duration of the Link and Debuff are the same, so it only matters if the target dies, deactivates the Link manually, or breaks it by moving away.

- Awake Soulmate: Increases your Attack and Movement speed as well as Cast Speed. When you crit, party members receive some extra heal effect.

- Detect: Biggest benefit from this is that you can un-hide classes with a hide skill (Thief, Rogue, Assassin, Ranger). I use it in towns to un-hide people who are afk; since I don't PvP, it's not actually that useful to me.

 

DPS Skills

 

- Sacrifice: The "laser beam" skill. This is the finisher move; however, you should be aware that it takes part of your total HP and turns that into damage, and it CAN kill you. 

- Soul Extinction: This skill inflicts some basic damage, a small DoT, and with Soul Extinction Mastery, will add a short movement debuff to the target.

- Death Spell: This is a small, short-range AoE skill that inflicts the "Soul Injection" debuff on targets. This debuff causes Mental Breakdown and Soul Extortion to be treated as AoE skills, as defined in their in-game descriptions.

- Mental Breakdown: This is a quick attack. It is casted instantly and has no cooldown. It may also cause a debuff on the target that will allow Sacrifice, Soul Extinction, Death Spell, or Immunity skill to use no cast time. This skill may be used while moving.

- Soul Extortion: This skill is a 5-second imitation DoT that leaves you unable to act otherwise unless you cancel it. However, it is slightly more powerful than Mental Breakdown and also provides a healing effect to you.

- Immunity: This skill can only be used while in Awake. It hits the target and all other enemies in a 20m range of the target; it also heals allies within that range.

Edited by Emilizzard, 25 May 2015 - 01:17 PM.

[NilaR]

Can you please elaborate detailed information on each debuff skills (Recovery, Soul Cleanse and Dispell) about the exact debuffs they remove. Also, further data on debuffs mechanics - how many kinds are there, how do they works, what/who caused them (from player's/monster's skills).

 

About threat formula:

(total heal amount) * 0.25 = (threat amount)

 

On AoE heals (Highness Heal and Restoration), does the total heal amount comes from total heal amount of each of them, or straight-up total heal amount

If a Highness Heal heals a target 5,000 and heals five targets, would it be

A. 5,000 * 0.25 = 1,250 * 5 = 6,250

B. (5,000 * 5) * 0.25 = 6,250

 

About Restoration's heal, how much does it's heal is reduced for each target?

If it's reduced by 10%, by an initial heal of 5,000 and heals five targets, further heals on next targets would be 5,000 > 4,500 > 4,000 > 3,500 > 3,000

A. 5,000 * 0.25 + 4,500 * 0.25 + 4,000 * 0.25 + 3,500 * 0.25 + 3,000 * 0.25 = 5,000

B. 5,000 + 4,500 + 4,000 + 3,500 + 3,000 = 20,000 * 0.25 = 5,000

 

Although, the final threat amount of both skills with the two methods are the same.. Maybe my question is irrelevant, I'm sorry..

Another thing is, do they have same range of healing in-between? As Highness Healing instantly heals multiple targets, while Restore's heal jumps from the initial target to the next ones. Is the range from the initial target to others, or from last target healed to others as in Restoration's case? Also, do Restoration heals have separate chance of hitting critical on each heal-jump, or only once at the initial heal as in Highness Heal?

 

Highness Heal                                                                Restoration                                                  

C        B                                                                   A         C

  \       /                             A as the initial                     \     /     \

    A                                     heal target                        B         D

  /      \                                                                                     /

D       E                                                                                 E

 

Lastly, among those three healers, only Sorcerer's heal/support that don't get upgraded of max skill level upon reaching ML on any of their heal/support skills. Unfortunately.

 

Anyway, thank you very much for your great healing guides. They, and you, are truly awesome and help a lot on the healing-ness ways.

[Emilizzard]

Can you please elaborate detailed information on each debuff skills (Recovery, Soul Cleanse and Dispell) about the exact debuffs they remove. Also, further data on debuffs mechanics - how many kinds are there, how do they works, what/who caused them (from player's/monster's skills).

 

I need to double-check this, but I think the removable ones are: stun, sleep, snare, and freeze. Stat debuffs and DoTs are not removable. Basically, it removes the ones that prevent movement/skill use.

 

I won't go into debuff mechanics in this guide, but I'll consider writing another guide on it. It's not really in the scope of this guide. 

 

About threat formula:

(total heal amount) * 0.25 = (threat amount)

 

On AoE heals (Highness Heal and Restoration), does the total heal amount comes from total heal amount of each of them, or straight-up total heal amount

If a Highness Heal heals a target 5,000 and heals five targets, would it be

A. 5,000 * 0.25 = 1,250 * 5 = 6,250

B. (5,000 * 5) * 0.25 = 6,250

 

It doesn't really matter the order you calculate it in because they're all multiplied. Just be sure to take the full amount generated by the skill, which appears in both the combat log and on-screen as giant green numbers.

 

About Restoration's heal, how much does it's heal is reduced for each target?

If it's reduced by 10%, by an initial heal of 5,000 and heals five targets, further heals on next targets would be 5,000 > 4,500 > 4,000 > 3,500 > 3,000

A. 5,000 * 0.25 + 4,500 * 0.25 + 4,000 * 0.25 + 3,500 * 0.25 + 3,000 * 0.25 = 5,000

B. 5,000 + 4,500 + 4,000 + 3,500 + 3,000 = 20,000 * 0.25 = 5,000

 

Although, the final threat amount of both skills with the two methods are the same.. Maybe my question is irrelevant, I'm sorry.. 

Another thing is, do they have same range of healing in-between? As Highness Healing instantly heals multiple targets, while Restore's heal jumps from the initial target to the next ones. Is the range from the initial target to others, or from last target healed to others as in Restoration's case? Also, do Restoration heals have separate chance of hitting critical on each heal-jump, or only once at the initial heal as in Highness Heal?

 

Highness Heal                                                                Restoration                                                  

C        B                                                                   A         C

  \       /                             A as the initial                     \     /     \

    A                                     heal target                        B         D

  /      \                                                                                     /

D       E                                                                                 E

 

• I still need to look at Restoration's heal amounts, I'd started while checking threat but never finished it.
• The threat calculation method doesn't really matter - in example A, you are calculating threat for each target separately, then adding the threat together; in example B, you are adding the heal values together then calculating the total threat. Either way works.
• Highness Heal is instant for all targets within 10m from the target.
• Restoration heals based on range from the initial target. The range is about 10 meters. Your diagrams are correct, provided that the further targets are within the 10 meter range.
• Both Restoration and Highness Heal have a separate crit chance for each target, not based on crit of the initial or former target.

 

Lastly, among those three healers, only Sorcerer's heal/support that don't get upgraded of max skill level upon reaching ML on any of their heal/support skills. Unfortunately.

 

Anyway, thank you very much for your great healing guides. They, and you, are truly awesome and help a lot on the healing-ness ways. 

 

I'll add a note about Sorcerer in that section, thanks for pointing it out.

 

You're welcome! 

[NilaR]

Thank you for your helpful replies

 

I need to double-check this, but I think the removable ones are: stun, sleep, snare, and freeze. Stat debuffs and DoTs are not removable. Basically, it removes the ones that prevent movement/skill use.

 

I won't go into debuff mechanics in this guide, but I'll consider writing another guide on it. It's not really in the scope of this guide. 

 

I'm sorry if it went off topic 

Further guide(s) would be greatly appreciated

[Emilizzard]

Don't worry too much about going off-topic, I'm looking for guide ideas anyways. 

 

I've updated the guide with some extra information concerning renewal of HoTs. Summary:

• Don't spam-renew a HoT (it won't heal and your target is more likely to die)
• Don't wait for Cure to run out before renewing it (3 or 1 second(s) left is ideal for maximum benefit). Renewing it is more efficient than needing to stack it 3 times, and conserves your SP as a bonus.
• When renewing a HoT, use your best judgement.

Learn your skills and you'll be fine