Best Group Healing Spells

[naejay]

<span style="color: #9900ff"><b>new to eq2 and have only played solo so far. Would like opinions on the best group heals for level 20-25</b></span>

[DarrkElf]

<p>At that level my advice is.... none.</p><p>If possible use your single target heals rather than group heals at the low levels.  Group heals take a lot of power to cast, and provided you have a decent tank only one player should be taking damage, therefore casting a group heal will usually just waste power.  </p><p>Test your heals out and take note of the impact that casting each heal has on your power.  Make sure you upgrade your heals to at least adept 1, preferably adept 3.</p><p>Personally, I think our best heals for the amount of power used are our heal over time spells.  You have 1 single target heal over time, 1 group heal over time and you also get 1 emergency single target heal over time (loooong recast timer) and 1 emergency group heal over time (looong recast timer).</p><p>Typically in a group, if you focus on the tank and cast single target heal over time, then your other single target heals you should be fine.  If more than 1 player in the group is getting aggro then the odd group heal over time spell, or direct group heal can be thrown around, but if you cast too many group heals you will have real trouble keeping your power up through the fight.</p><p>Generally, if someone other than the tank keeps getting aggro (eg. a wizard, scout etc), first check with the tank that he has upgraded his taunts to adepts or better, then keep an eye on how long after pull your aggro stealers are waiting before they cast.  It is fairly common at your level to see players unfamiliar with aggro control casting their biggest nukes the second the tank pulls, and therefore you end up with the mob heading straight to the caster.  If you see this happening, make sure that the tank is using a pull macro to let you know when he's pulling the mob.  A good macro to use at lower levels around newer players is:  "A Horrible Beasty Howler is incoming, wait 3 secs for me to get aggro before casting" or something along those lines so that players learn to pace themselves with aggro.</p><p>Once you reach higher levels (50+) then worry more about group heals, because then you can start getting nice power regen gear, items and adorns that let you cast every spell as fast as you want while rarely having problems running out of power.  Group heals are handy, but their main usefulness seems to be against mobs that AoE.  </p>

[Menaelin]

I think DarrkElf is pretty much right on here. I would, however, make an exception for when you're healing against mobs several levels higher than the tank, or when your group gets a ton of adds. In these situations, you'll want to stack your single target and group heal over time spells and spam regular heals as necessary to get the group through the encounter. You'll blow through power really quickly in these situations, but if you do it right, your group will survive, and that's what matters most. In all my experiences playing different healing classes, Druids seem to have the greatest capability when it comes to dishing out healing and keeping people alive through dicey situations like that as a single healer. The only drawback is that, when this happens, we eat up power like no tomorrow, so you have to hope that your group's DPS is enough to pull you through.

[DarrkElf]

<cite>Menaelin wrote:</cite><blockquote>I think DarrkElf is pretty much right on here. I would, however, make an exception for when you're healing against mobs several levels higher than the tank, or when your group gets a ton of adds. In these situations, you'll want to stack your single target and group heal over time spells and spam regular heals as necessary to get the group through the encounter. You'll blow through power really quickly in these situations, but if you do it right, your group will survive, and that's what matters most. In all my experiences playing different healing classes, Druids seem to have the greatest capability when it comes to dishing out healing and keeping people alive through dicey situations like that as a single healer. The only drawback is that, when this happens, we eat up power like no tomorrow, so you have to hope that your group's DPS is enough to pull you through. </blockquote>Good point from Menaelin, when everything's going to hell in a handbasket you just heal your butt off using everything you've got and prey that the mobs dies before everyone runs out of power  <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Your heal over time spells allow you to cast it, then focus on spot healing while the first heal continues healing during the fight, this is the same for your group heal over time spell as well.  If you get into the pattern of casting heal over time first (either group or single target) and then spot healing until the heal over time refreshes you are essentially putting 2 heals on your tank/group at the same time. I highly recommend grabbing adept 3's or masters for your heal over time spells.

[naejay]

thank you guys for the info and I will look at trying to get masters for my healing spells.

[Menaelin]

<cite>naejay wrote:</cite><blockquote>thank you guys for the info and I will look at trying to get masters for my healing spells. </blockquote> To be perfectly honest, it isn't necessary to run around getting Master I's and Adept 3's of all your healing spells early on. You'll be perfectly competent with Adept I's as long as you know what you're doing. Good healing is 90% technique, 10% spell quality. Once you hit about level 55, you should start collecting Adept 3's for spells that don't get replaced again before you hit level 70.

[TheBu]

<p>Best free heal spells or almost free </p><p>Greater Regrowth lvl 19 M2 pick   (96-117 M1 single Hot) 61 power</p><p>Winds of Renewal lvl 14 M2 pick (71-86 m1 group Hot) 87 power Bounty of the Virtuous lvl 20 Splitpaw Den purchased spell [ heals and gives power] 2s 150 heal 58power 10%+45power </p><p>Other good heals spells </p><p>Nature's Salve lvl 22 194-237 1s 50power Greater Elixir lvl 18 259-317 1.5 70 power Feral Mask lvl 19   +21 a tick (210 health every min)</p><p>http://www.eq2ref.com/abilities/index.php?class=Fury</p>