Defiler Heal Spec?

[Nodecodiver]

<p>Hey guys -</p><p>I am getting my SK and my Wife's Defiler leveled up, they hit 60 last night.</p><p>I've got the SK specced pretty well, but I'm kind of stuck with the Defiler.</p><p>My wife's account does not have Shadows enabled yet, so I can't get to that tree as of right now.</p><p>Can anybody tell me a decent raid healing spec setup for a defiler?</p><p>Thank you!</p>

[Sedenten]

<p>You're probably going to get a dozen different answers on this.  There's some very valuable information posted over on <a href="http://www.eq2flames.com">www.eq2flames.com</a> concerning this very topic (check the defiler boards), so you can get some more opinions from there.  Since you're asking about raid AA specs, this is what works for my playstyle:</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>SHAMAN</strong></span><em>Note:  The Wisdom and Stamina trees are my base AA lines which I do not deviate from in a healing spec.  Other defilers will argue otherwise, but it's unlikely I'll be losing either of these lines anytime soon.</em><em></em><strong>WIS 4/4/4/8/1</strong> (spend the missing two anywhere you wish, though I tossed mine into the Ritual heal bonus for giggles; I dropped Ritual of Alacrity to recoup some points to toss into the Shadow tree before I was back at max AA's)<strong>STA 4/4/4/8</strong> (personally I hold a lot of stock in how fast I'm able to cure, so I consider STA to be a huge asset for raiding as well as grouping; some defilers go for Coagulate, and you can probably do a search on various defiler boards for wildly differing opinions on it's usefulness)</p><p><em>If <75% heal crit:</em><strong>AGI 4/4/4/8</strong> (once you get over 75% heal crit, it's usually safe to drop this line; when I had the AGI line spec'ed, I used my extra points from not maxing this line out to grab Coagulate in the STA line)</p><p><em>If >75% heal crit:</em><strong>STR 4/4/4/8/1</strong> (again, drop the missing two points anywhere you feel is handy; only get this line if you're going to go all the way with it and get the end ability; depending on what content you're raiding, you might find the dog to be more or less useful due to an overabundance AoE's that count as direct)</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>DEFILER</strong></span><em>Note:  I use the Curseweaving and Soulward lines as my base here.  A lot of the tier 8 raiding shamans are leaning towards dropping the Cannibalize line for Hexation since there's a ton of power proc gear coming into the game.  I choose to keep Hexation on a mirror and grab it for fights where it will make the difference.  If my guild ever starts doing avatars, I might keep Hexation on a more permanent basis.</em></p><p><strong>Preventions:</strong>  I tossed my points into whatever was necessary to max out emergencies and Voice of the Ancestors (if you have the Canni line, you can cross over to Voice easily).  If they end up fixing Spiritual Shrine to be raid-wide again, I would suggest getting some points into it as well.  <strong>Curses:</strong>  This is another line where you'll find some defilers arguing over.  Personally I debuff a lot and find the extra casting speed and power savings quite handy.  Max out everything but the Fear enhancement here and grab Curseweaving.<strong>Cannibalize:</strong>  This was considered a requirement pre-T8 raiding.  With all of the power procs in game these days, though, the line has fallen in usefulness though I still keep it around out of habit.  I would suggest going with Canni until you get to the point where power is less of an issue.<strong>Hexation:</strong>  This ability can be quite powerful for a lot of fights, but the immunity timer leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  It is quite powerful for defensive buff effects on later fights (avatars especially along with Byzola and Trakanon).  If you're not really using Cannibalize and power is not an issue, this isn't a bad line to consider taking.</p>

[Nodecodiver]

<p>Wow, that was exactly what I hoping to read in reply. (Not the information - just the informative nature of your response).</p><p>I will try what you suggested as soon as I get home.</p><p>Thank you very much!</p><p>My wifes toon has very little gear other than what I will be able to get for her until my guild lets me dual box her with my Templar for raids, so power procs and power in general will be a problem for her, which is why I considered the Canni stuff to begin with. </p><p>Glad to hear you still keep it around.</p>

[Window]

<p><cite>Sedenten wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>SHAMAN</strong></span><em>Note:  The Wisdom and Stamina trees are my base AA lines which I do not deviate from in a healing spec.  Other defilers will argue otherwise, but it's unlikely I'll be losing either of these lines anytime soon.</em><em></em><strong></strong></p></blockquote><p>Great post, but here I had a question.</p><p>I just reached level 70 with my defiler and when I went to put 70 points into the Shaman tree, the stamina line didn't appeal to me at all.  For now I'm doing a str/agi/wis build (agi just for heal crit).   At what point do faster cures make or break a defiler?</p>

[imnotdisco]

<p><cite>Window wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Sedenten wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>SHAMAN</strong></span><em>Note:  The Wisdom and Stamina trees are my base AA lines which I do not deviate from in a healing spec.  Other defilers will argue otherwise, but it's unlikely I'll be losing either of these lines anytime soon.</em><em></em><strong></strong></p></blockquote><p>Great post, but here I had a question.</p><p>I just reached level 70 with my defiler and when I went to put 70 points into the Shaman tree, the stamina line didn't appeal to me at all.  For now I'm doing a str/agi/wis build (agi just for heal crit).   At what point do faster cures make or break a defiler?</p></blockquote><p>I have recently respeced both my defiler and wifes mystic to the sta line, all the way to coagulate. I dont know how i go without it. Personally, ive seen coagulate save the group from wiping. Ive seen it save dps on big aoe fights. and the faster cures, helps alot especially when raiding, where every second counts. Just my take on the sta line, in my opinion, its worth it, there are others who may disagree, but i just cant get over what a life saver coagulate can be.</p><p>i must also agree with sedenten, now that i speced sta, i can see wis and sta lines are going to be my base for any heal  spec. But im still a fan of the agi line as well, until endgame, the +heal crit in that line is nice.</p>

[Kari]

<p><cite>Window wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Sedenten wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>SHAMAN</strong></span><em>Note:  The Wisdom and Stamina trees are my base AA lines which I do not deviate from in a healing spec.  Other defilers will argue otherwise, but it's unlikely I'll be losing either of these lines anytime soon.</em><em></em><strong></strong></p></blockquote><p>Great post, but here I had a question.</p><p>I just reached level 70 with my defiler and when I went to put 70 points into the Shaman tree, the stamina line didn't appeal to me at all.  For now I'm doing a str/agi/wis build (agi just for heal crit).   At what point do faster cures make or break a defiler?</p></blockquote><p>Your cures will begin to make or break you if you start to raid, or otherwise when you begin to play in TSO group instances. I believe i specced into cures for the KoS raid zones, but the TSO instances have a number of fights where curing is key.</p>

[Greggthegrmreapr]

<p>Coagulate is a nice little bonus to PvP as well.  Now if they would only give us back the Knockback on the shield bash instead of a daze, i would be happy!</p>

[Nimbrithil]

<p>Coagulate is a must with out long csting times especially if you are solo healing. I can not count the number of times one of the party BESIDES the tank has dropped whille I was mid caszt on group heal and it saved the groiup.</p><p>P.S. Dont listen to Denna he is a slacker and lame healer.</p>

[Greggthegrmreapr]

<p>stuff it burp <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I was through your stomping grounds earlier this week, but I hadn't talked to you in awhile.</p>

[Nimbrithil]

<p><cite>Denna@Venekor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>stuff it burp <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I was through your stomping grounds earlier this week, but I hadn't talked to you in awhile.</p></blockquote><p>Well apperntly I we will soon be all one big unhappy malcontent disfuntional family soon so maybe we can do some running together again</p>

[Greggthegrmreapr]

<p>Be just like old times... </p>

[Sedenten]

<p><cite>imnotdisco wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Window wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Sedenten wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>SHAMAN</strong></span><em>Note:  The Wisdom and Stamina trees are my base AA lines which I do not deviate from in a healing spec.  Other defilers will argue otherwise, but it's unlikely I'll be losing either of these lines anytime soon.</em><em></em><strong></strong></p></blockquote><p>Great post, but here I had a question.</p><p>I just reached level 70 with my defiler and when I went to put 70 points into the Shaman tree, the stamina line didn't appeal to me at all.  For now I'm doing a str/agi/wis build (agi just for heal crit).   At what point do faster cures make or break a defiler?</p></blockquote><p>I have recently respeced both my defiler and wifes mystic to the sta line, all the way to coagulate. I dont know how i go without it. Personally, ive seen coagulate save the group from wiping. Ive seen it save dps on big aoe fights. and the faster cures, helps alot especially when raiding, where every second counts. Just my take on the sta line, in my opinion, its worth it, there are others who may disagree, but i just cant get over what a life saver coagulate can be.</p><p>i must also agree with sedenten, now that i speced sta, i can see wis and sta lines are going to be my base for any heal  spec. But im still a fan of the agi line as well, until endgame, the +heal crit in that line is nice.</p></blockquote><p>I suck at checking back for replies.  I'm a bit late on this, but...</p><div>Faster cures start being more important as you get closer to endgame.  There's cases in and out of raids where getting effects cured quickly can be more important than timely heals.  I have no doubts that as the level cap goes up and encounters become more and more complicated cures will stay important.  Also, the power cost goes down significantly--down to around 20 power per cast at maxed out rank.  Without spending anything, I want to say the power cost per cure is around 130-140 (I would need to look it up).  While defilers in general do not have too many issues with power, I'm always one for cutting my costs on something like curing.  I have noticed some defilers drop a few points from maxing out the cure lines, but the majority of defilers out there put <em>some </em>points into curing. </div><p>Just keep in mind this line will not affect your group cure, Words of the Ancestor line, or curse cures. </p><p>When you reach the point where you can drop points into three lines (i.e. 70+), the choice becomes a lot easier, but I still use STA/WIS as my base and swing between AGI/STR depending on the state of my heal crit.  I dropped AGI once I was 75% heal crit (without the AA line helping), and haven't had any regrets yet.</p><p>Also, I changed my current spec so that I'm always using Hexation (dropped the Canni line).  I'm using a variant of what Razieh posted over on eq2flames.  If you're raiding in tier 8 and power is not an issue (it shouldn't be by that point), then I highly recommend giving the setup a try.  If power was more of an issue, I'd drop back to Canni without a thought, though.</p>

[Rayche]

<p>I use pretty much the same, except I run Hexation, Curseweaving and Canni in the EoF tree.</p><p>I find I use Canni way more often than I ever used Soul ward. I just don't find myself comfortable at 10% health in TSO raids, and Canni gives me 25% increase on my next offensive spell. (Still need to test if it works on Pandemonium)</p>

[Sedenten]

<p><cite>Rayche@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I use pretty much the same, except I run Hexation, Curseweaving and Canni in the EoF tree.</p><p>I find I use Canni way more often than I ever used Soul ward. I just don't find myself comfortable at 10% health in TSO raids, and Canni gives me 25% increase on my next offensive spell. (Still need to test if it works on Pandemonium)</p></blockquote><p>I'd probably go your route if I didn't use Soulward so much.  I've died to using Soulward once in the past 6 months that I can think of and use it several times over the course of single night of raiding.  I have habits I've built up over time that mitigate the chance of death after I've fired it.  There's also some cases where I've used Soulward as a kind of preward (i.e. right before Switchmaster is triggered is one case I can think of offhand) and nothing beats a 16k+ ward buffer on the tank in the cases where you can use it <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" />  It's not necessarily needed, but Soulward is such an integral part of my toolset that I couldn't get used to not having it.  Curseweaving is much the same--I'm not sure I could keep my sanity trying to land debuffs between heals without it.</p><p>As far as Canni, I once had the habit of using it anytime I found my power <80% while waiting on recasts for heals.  Since accumulating some power proc gear I've found the hotkey less and less used and finally just gave it up completely.  I still have it on a mirror spec and might go back to it now and again for fights where controlling my power is important (i.e. VS style fights), but that's really the only times I can think I'd want to have it myself at this point. </p>