Warden Raiding

[Sysliana]

<p>Hey all! Well, after playing Vanguard and having that tank I came to EQ2 to try it out. I love the healer class and rolled a warden and got to 70 in about 3 weeks of nothing but straight grinding. Im not very familiar with KoS and EoF zones, especialy not raid zones, but I just started raiding about 2 weeks ago. </p><p>Last night was the first time I've seen a healer parse and to my utter dismay I was at the bottom of it.. I thought I was doing okay as a warden and I seem to do alright in intances and what not. My spells are all Adept III with few masters and I've yet to get very much fabled gear. Ive been getting into the habit of using my tree on every pull and seem to be spamming heals. I try not to use very many group heals because they kill my mana so only when I see people in the group get busted with an AOE I cast one (I dont know when the AOE's are yet and Im still learning.) I cast Regenerative Spores on the tank.. For my druid tree I went down Wisdom and Intel lines and on my Warden tree I did the same, first I filled in all the healing line and started working my way over to the damage spells.</p><p>Is there any advice that anyone can give me to make my heals more effective and make me a much better raiding warden or does it just take experiance, more masters and fabled gear? </p><p>Thanks!</p><p>Exocia</p>

[Veedublya]

<p>I would ditch the WIS line and go with your STA line instead. The 16% heal crit helps a good amount and serentity at the end of the line is very nice.</p><p>Also, if you wanna focus more on healing than dps, you should consider dropping your INT line for your AGI line, the Wild Regeneration can up your heal parse as well.</p>

[Oakum]

<p>With wards landing first, then reactives, then regens/direct heals. If your shaman and clerics are geared good and have mostly masters its very possible your healing is just not needed as much. That is when you just have fun and nuke or melee depending on your AA spec. Edit: my point being that your healing just may not have been required. When it is though as in the tank taking constant damage and your heals landing/ticking. Your parses will shine especially as you get your spells adept 3'ed and mastered. </p>

[Isard]

<p>I went down the STR line (as in 5-8-8-8-2), a little bit in INT (don't have 50 AA's on that side yet) and then enhanced Spores and others as well as getting the CA's.</p><p>On one night in Mistmoore Catacombs over 30% of my healing came from the group heal proc from the STR line and another 16% or so came from spores going off.</p><p>Last night in Halls of Seeing I parsed over 1 million healed, blowing away the next healer (Templar) by nearly 400k healed.  Nearly every single fight I was in there meleeing.  I didn't parse last night so I didn't see my breakdown though.  This was with no points in the STA or WIS lines, virtually no +healing items, and not real enhancement to my heal crit chance.</p><p>Anyway, my rambling point is that I've seen that with the STR line you can see a bump in healing and your DPS while having fun and not standing back just casting heal after heal.  I know that doesn't fin into everyones play style and there are times you cannot melee but to me counting on heal crit chances and a 20% or so increase in one tick of a HoT isn't a reliable way to keep your tank alive.</p>

[Sysliana]

<p>Thanks for everyones advice.. It seems like Im one of the only healers in our raid that has gone down the wisdom line and has the "Rebirth" so it really sometimes saves a raid, and it definately saves time when we wipe. I notice that its very helpful, especialy for me which was a big reason I chose the wisdom line. I think I only healed for a whoping like 6k while the top healer (A templar) parsed for over 1mil.. Maybe it is a big deal about AA's. </p><p>Is there like specific heals that you press in specific orders, group heals or anything, a spell or something that I might be missing or overlooking that I wouldnt notice (Aside from the ordinary heal spells and my tree) that might be helpful? A macro maybe? I really want to expand and learn my class more effectively since Im in the MT group and one of the only wardens in the guild. </p><p>Thanks again for replies</p><p>'Xoc</p>

[Cathars]

The heal parse is deceptive.  Its zero-sum, meaning if someone goes up, someone else goes down.  Pair that with the fact that shaman wards are counted first, and cleric reactives go off whenever the ward is broken, it leaves little space for druid heals on the parse.  UNLESS you're doing particularly difficult content or your shamans are asleep at the wheel.  On difficult stuff Im always on the top, on easy stuff Im always on the bottom.  But, if you're looking for ways to pump out more healing (which you should be, you may not need it all the time but if theres even one time that you do, you'd better be able to put out as much as possible), get Wild Regen and Serene Focus, +healing adornments/items, master your heals (including group heals) and establish a casting order that lets you stack in group heals.

[Isard]

<p>I can't comment on our shamen / clerics being asleep at the wheel because they might read this.</p><p>As to heal order, I usually do the following:</p><p>On tank pull I put up a few of the enhanced cures to give him a little mitigation buff as well as put up exhaltion (our cold / heat ward & resist buff).  Spores, thorns and primal instinct is buffed on the tank already.  On the pull, as soon as the tank takes a hit I put Sylvan Streams on them and then usually Chloro, depending on how much damage he took.  If it was a big hit I might use Verdant Bliss.  By this time the Cleric reactives and Mystic wards (we don't always have a shaman with us) have been applied / kicked in and the tanks health is somewhat stabilized.  I then start meleeing if I can.  I'll then start cycling heals as needed, usually trying to keep Chloro running and augement with others, group heals included.  If the MT's health stays stable I just fire off my CA's and keep an eye on things.  </p><p>I also spot heal across the raid when folks take some damage and their group healer is worried about the MT.  This might be one of the reasons I parsed so much higher.</p><p>Anyway, after months of raiding I've been out healed once I think by the other healers in our raid force.  </p>

[Wclarry]

Basically just skimming through the thread people already said what I pretty much thought.Good shamans and good clerics should never need a druid in the group to keep the tank up. If you have a good shaman / good cleric on trash and most non AOE names you SHOULD be parsing lower.On another note. Heal crits are overrated. The STA line isnt anything spectacular IMO. You will gain more healing power from AGI Wild Regeneration than you will from that measly 16% or so heal crit.You also said you dont cast your group heals all too often? Hmmm... I cast my group heals FAR more often than my single target. This isn't Vanguard or WOW where your group heals are so massively power intensive as to prohibit you from casting them. My group heals are the first things I cast and what I spam most often and I save my single target heals for spike damage. If your gear doesnt suck HORRIBLY then power should never be an issue for a warden.Just my 2 cents.

[xandez]

misfire misfire, just noticed this was for raiding... <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />++Xan

[Isard]

<p>Group heals are a lifesaver.  With 5 main heals we can cycle (3 single, 2 group) you can basically always be healing.  I always use group heals, its usually the 3rd heal I cast.  It really helps with recovery from AoE's and such.</p>

[Arielle Nightshade]

<p>I agree with Drop the WIS line - in a raid zone, rebirth is handy, true, but it's not necessary when you have people who can FD with a rezz item and get everyone standing that way.   IMO, it's not worth having just so my lazy raidmates don't have to run back - when I could have heal crits from other lines.    In PvP, Rebirth is not my idea of a good time, so maxing out that line has never been a priority.</p><p>Also, with regard to the remark you made about not having much fabled gear:  I'd have to say that's just fine.  There are SO many items out there that are very nice, and that can be had from doing quests (most of the Claymore rewards along the way to the end of that quest, for example), that I'd say you don't have to push so hard to get fabled out.  Take your time to be comfortable with Wardening, is my advice.   The fabled items will come along as you progress with that.</p>

[Oldlore]

A warden's position on the heal parse will depend on 1) how often the MT's hp bar is below 100% and 2) how much AoE damage they get to heal.  On easy raids or trash, when the MT barely drops below green, druid heals aren't needed.  On mobs that do mostly single target dmg, one of a druid's main strengths (fast aoe regens), isn't needed.  It's all very situational. 

[Fromingo]

First off dump the wisdom line.  It's pretty pathetic and useless for most situations.   Lots of classes can FD,  well really anyone can FD if they become a tinkerer so it's rare that there isn't someone to rez.  Just make sure you hand out rez items.    Int line is really for DPS so if you want DPS and nuke a lot stick with it, plus the end ability makes you want to heal more so that you do DPS too.   The 3 lines that can help with heals are Str, Agi, Stam.  Personally I went Str and Stam since I am melee specced and like heal crits.   Some go Agi but I think that line offers too little just to get a situational AE avoid and shorter/beefier regens.  Second MT's often need druids on hard stuff but not on trash.   Main advice for topping heal parses on the trash fights(or even all fights) when you are in MT group is...1)  Heal outside your group.  I usually pop my quick heals on anyone that needs them unless the MT is taking a beating.  Don't worry you got your direct group heal (and even emergencies) up in case the MT takes a spike and your single target quick heals are down. It (they) will cover for the few sec it takes for the singles to pop back up.   2)  Use group regen.  It's not that mana intensive and very efficient.  It's the direct group heal that is not efficient enough to use unless really needed.  3)  Taunt the shamans and clerics to beat you on the DPS parse,  more DPS they put out, less heals they put out.  Of course then they might beat you on DPS parses but then most things are a trade off.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Cathars]

<cite>Fromingo wrote:</cite><blockquote> Some go Agi but I think that line offers too little just to get a situational AE avoid and shorter/beefier regens.  </blockquote>Its also the single biggest boost to healing we can get from AA

[Fromingo]

Having seen how much heal procs add to my heal parses I'd say the Str line would give it a run for it's money.  However for a raiding warden that's a lot of AA since all the earlier abilities in Agi line are pretty worthless on raids.