Antryg Mistrose
08-09-2008, 11:56 AM
Forum is looking a bit quiet, and I have insomnia, soooooo - some basic stuff for raiding.Feel free to disagree/correct <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><p><span style="font-size: small;color: #ffcc00;">Gear:</span>Templars can wear all armour types, and when not expecting to be hit, the armour class doesn't matter, so that gives us an advantage. The best hat in the game is chain, and there are some pretty nice leather boots. The rest of the good stuff I've found though is plate.</p><p>Templar's main heals are reactives. These cap out with +Heal at <300 which is the lowest of any priests (wards & regens have higher +heal caps). Persuing it further still has benefits - Repent & Direct heals, but its not the primary focus.</p><p>Shield Ally (compulsory for any MT templar) makes for some unusual gear choices too.</p><p>The main criteria I look for in gear is:</p><p> 1. Shield Ally 2. Nice Procs Pondwash, +%Heal, Overloaded (regen), Shelter (ward) 3. Heal Crits 4. +Heal 5. Resists, Stats, .... 6. Fabled tag <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><span style="font-size: small;color: #ffcc00;">User Interface:</span><p>Default UI last I checked, doesn't include group click-to-cure, Reactive-triggers-remaining, Health as a percent, or clickable raid effects, so I don't recommend it.</p><p>I use <a href="http://www.eq2interface.com/downloads/info4277-ProfitUIReborn.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #99cc00;">Profit Reborn</span></a>, with a <a href="http://www.eq2interface.com/downloads/info4522-4xClicktoHealCure--RaidWindowAllPriests.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #99cc00;">raid window</span></a> from EQAditu author of ACT.</p><p>Click-to-cure is great for groupmates, but less use on MT or out of group folk.</p><p>In terms of hotbars, I used to use numeric keypad (right hand) and Ctrl/Alt keys (left hand) to have the first 3 banks of hotkeys on very fast access (Faster than it is possible with a mouse).</p><p>I still have the setup with all the most useful stuff on those 3, but T8 raids make you move a lot, so now use a mouse more (ok, trackball). I've probably slowed down a bit as a result (but can now click on group/raid mates without having to grab mouse in a hurry).</p><p>Primary:</p><ul><li> 1 - Target MT macro</li><li>2 - /cancel_spellcast, Cure macro</li><li> 3 - Meliorate - small fast direct heal</li><li>4 - Arch Heal - larger slower direct heal</li><li>5 - Repent - single target ward</li><li> 6 - Vital Intercession macro - single target raidwide cleric reactive</li><li> 7 - Holy Intercession - group reactive</li><li> 8 - Shield of Faith - group arcane buff/ward</li><li> 9 - Word of Redemption - group heal</li><li> 0 - Healing Fate - group heal on mob death</li><li> - Holy Salvation macro</li><li> + Whoops macro (Beneficence + Radiance)</li></ul><p>In the cure macro, I have cancel spell cast in front the actual cure, so I can hit it at any time and it cures immediatly, without having to wait for the spell queue or require Escape/Jump.</p><p>The other ones labelled "macro" I edit with the MT, OT or self name every time we raid or change groups around - I swap the Target macro (position) with an Assist macro (normally Ctl-1) or Target ST macro depending on raid difficulty or group. Solo my /assist macro becomes /target_nearest_npc</p><p>Secondary (Alt):</p><ul><li> 1 - /cancel_spellcast, Group Cure Arcane/Trauma macro</li><li>2 - Cure (no cancel spellcast so its just queued)</li><li> 3 - Reverence - raid wide castable heal on power use</li><li> 4 - Cure Curse</li><li> 5 - Awestruck (stun)</li><li> 6 - Sign of Placation (daze)</li><li> 7 - HO starter and a couple of nukes macro (#1)</li><li> 8 - HO starter and a couple of nukes macro (#2)</li><li> 9 - Couple of AA nukes macro (3)</li><li> 0 - Greater Complacency (AoE deaggro BLUE! and daze)</li><li> - Divine Arbitration (group health equalise)</li><li> + Focused Intervention - emergency reactive (stunned)</li></ul><p>Note # macro has HO starter then 2-3 couple of nukes, including master smite, and as I swap between different AA builds there will only be 2 that are available, but I don't need to keep re-editing the macro. E.g. : Divine Providence, Divine Smite, /useability 1347119616 is what the "7" macro looks like in my group/raid AA build as the 3rd ability is from an AA I don't have in that build.</p><p>Tertiary (Ctl):</p><ul><li> 1 - Assist (or target ST or target MT - move this button about)</li><li>2 - Sanctuary macro (with group message)</li><li> 3 - Divine recovery macro (with group message)</li><li> 4 - Mark macro (also has /autoattack 1 and /pet attack) - Divine debuff (so rest of stuff lands) and heal proc</li><li> 5 - Overconfidence - Mob hate/target Templar AA</li><li> 6 - Involuantary Gift - heal proc</li><li> 7 - Reproval - mitigation debuff</li><li> 8 - Piercing Stab - Racial mitigation debuff/nuke</li><li> 9 - Smite Corruption - debuff/dot</li><li> 0 - Warring Deities - dot</li><li> - Blazoned Faith - group nuke</li><li> + Misfits Trickery - racial deaggro </li></ul><p><span style="font-size: small;color: #ffcc00;">Cast Order:</span></p><p>This is the important stuff. Templars have the slowest cast times in the game (okay 2nd slowest compared to defilers if we go the INT cleric AA line). You must anticipate.</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ffcc00;">Incoming Call</span></p><p>2.1sec - Repent4.2sec - Group Reactive (9 triggers)1.7sec - Single Target Reactive (5 triggers)1.7sec - Sanctuary (want this right on the pull to last as long as possible)optionally Shield of Faith (arcane ward, and don't always have sanctuary up or want it)</p><p>Total 9.7sec (with AA), so its nice when you strike an MT who can count.</p><p>In lower tiers (or with a crap tank) that amount of pre-casting used to be fatal. its not generally now. If the mob does like you a bit much, well you ARE wearing plate armour and Greater Complacency is a very nice deaggro (its also our only "BLUE" spell so use with caution).</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ffcc00;">Engaged</span></p><p>Possibly Divine Recovery around this time, so the whole group can get all their heals renewed and debuffs cast as epics will hit VERY hard until the raid gets a few debuffs on.</p><p>After mob clears any friends and is in range, I try to go down this list ASAP, but cures and refreshing heals etc take priority</p><ul><li>Mark - divine debuff (so rest of stuff lands and proc heal)</li><li>Overconfidence - so if the mob does like me too much it won't hit me (or any non-tank) more than once</li><li>Involuntary Gift (you can probably see why my tertiary spell bar is ordered the way it is now)</li><li>Reproval</li></ul><p>(Solo I'll pull with Mark then skip to Reproval and continue all the way across to warring dieties and start HO nuking, in groups on trash I'll skip a few debuffs as mob will be dead before I can cast em all anyway )</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ffcc00;">Maintaining</span></p><p>Ignoring debuffs and avoidance (shield ally), cleric is the 2nd line of defence as reactives trigger after wards but before regens. You can never tell when damage will land through wards, so both reactives must be up at all times if you can manage it.</p><p>Tier 3 and above epics seem to love "double attack". A good thing about this is that it uses 2 charges of reactives (so tank gets healed twice), thats also a bad thing as our reactives only have 5 and 9 charges respectively (ignoring VP 6 set gear bonus or a coercer who should have cast Coercive Healing on the shaman not you), and 6 and 14.7 sec recast.</p><p>I renew the Single Reactive pretty much whenever it is up. 5 triggers minus one double attack = 3, so one more attack and its mostly gone. 1.7 sec casting time isn't too bad though.</p><p>Group reactive is more of a concern - it takes 4.2sec to cast, which can be a lifetime on a raid. I try to always cast the Single Reactive (or better yet repent if its up) right before, so that there is SOME protection should the group reactive timeout or be used up while casting it.</p><p>Repent: This by itself will probably be about equal healing to both single target and group reactives put together, as long as you cast it whenever it is up. It is our best heal spell, bar none. Do NOT wait until the tank drops from 100% to use it !Yeah, yeah, it heals for more if the tank is below 100%, but its a 4k ward regardless, and in a raid the MT does not stay below 100% for long, they either die while you are busy waiting for the perfect time to cast this, or get healed up by some darn warden before you have a chance to.</p><p>In general, I'll be casting something at all times, unless REALLY limited on power. Priority to single target cure, group cure if applicable (both with /cancel spellcast) followed by Repent and the Reactives</p><p>Other stuff fills in the gaps - direct heals, keeping reverence up, renewing debuffs, manastone, clarity potions, the odd nuke even. You CAN cancel direct heals if they look like landing on a tank at 100% health, but with power being abundant generally and Arch Restoration with its 2.5sec cast, means that it will often heal even if you start casting it at 100% health.</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ffcc00;">Raidwide castable</span></p><p>When NOT in the group, the following are raidwide castable:</p><p> * Single target reactive (overwrites any other CLERIC though) * Repent (overwrites any other templar, but its a ward so on hard stuff doesn't last long, so cast it anyway) * Reverence (overwrites any other templar) - useful for mages or "choker" wearers * Big Direct heal * Small fast Direct Heal * Mana cure (I'd like some advice on who is best to cast this on to get cures for nox, elemental etc). I normally through it on an enchanter so that I might get arcane cure (most common stun/stifle type) of 'em.</p><p>Now and then if things are stable I'll throw a direct heal on a lifeburning necro via the raidwindow, or a Reverence on an overnuking wizard.</p><p>In lower tiers when power was more of a problem, we used to co-ordinate out of MT priests casting single target wards/regens/reactives. These days it seems to be more trouble than its worth.</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;color: #ffcc00;">Weird Stuff</span></p><p>Divine Arbitration = Evenly distrubutes groups HP amongst members (similar to coercer power equalise spell). Twouses:1) Its a ZONEWIDE full heal for a lowish HP character - works a treat on mages in Leviathon nuking2) Its a risky last ditch save on a tank IF the rest of the group has close to max health it will be a HUGE heal, but as the tank always has the most potential HP, it can actually DROP their HP if they are full or the rest of the group are damaged when you cast it.(I cross my fingers and say 3 hail marys before casting it on raids)</p><p>Focused BlahBlah - This is the large reactive heal that has 15? triggers and stuns you. I cast it every other month. It has 2 uses:</p><ol><li>When you are very low on power, as it takes stuff all and has a pretty big heal</li><li>When soloing and you have lots of mobs beating on you (works a treat with a damage shield potion)</li><li>Huge heal for when the tank is getting a lot of small hits by a lot of mobs (ie not useful at all in RoK raiding)</li></ol><p>Do NOT use it otherwise - while theoretically its a bigger heal than both normal reactives, its NOT bigger than both put together and you are stunned, so can't do anything else while its in effect</p><p>Radiance & BenificenceAlthough these haven't scaled well, you can cast both of them in a split second so I have them in a macro right next to Holy Salvation</p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;color: #ffff00;">Targeting</span></p><p>I've mentioned it a bit above - I have 3 target macros, each with a nice recognizable icon. I edit these as necessary and they will float around between 1 on primary hotkeys, 1 on Ctrl hotkeys and 1 on my hotkey just below that.</p><p>It really depends on the raid, and group I'm in.</p><p>e.g. Sisters in Hate - I might have </p><ol><li>/target Ire </li><li>/target Malevolence </li><li>/target MT</li></ol><p>but normally it would be something like</p><ol><li>/target MT</li><li>/assist MA </li><li>/target ST</li></ol>The assist key is useful for debuffing the right mob(s) and for casting Healing Fate (group heal on mob death). Having single target reactive macroed with a name, means I don't have to always be targeting the MT/ST to cast it. I do have a non-macroed version though, on a different but still accessible hotbar