Defiler Casting Order?

[DontHitMe]

<p>I am just getting into my defiler.  I PL'd it to 80 and have been playing it once in a while (want to play it more).  The problem is that I don't have a feel for what the right casting order is.  Meaning: what wards help the best.  I know, of course, the single and group ward but after that, I am not sure what helps out the most.  So when does the Warding Bane come into play, how much the the pet ward, etc.</p><p>So, can someone please help me with casting/importance order.  Here is where my problem also come in, it is hard for me to read old post because of the new name changes.  Can someone please tell me this information using the new naming scheme?</p><p>Thanks in advance!</p>

[Sedenten]

<p>There's not really a casting order, per se, with shaman.  We are all about one thing in particular:  wards.  Whereas other priests serve to heal damage that has already been done, we're there to prevent the damage from denting the health bars. </p><p>In general, always keep your first two single and group target wards up.  I'm not in game so I can't tell you their exact names but I believe it's the <strong>Carrion Warding</strong> and <strong>Ancient Shroud</strong> lines (close enough, anyway!).  Those are your primary two, and should always be kept going.  Even if a tank is dropping quickly, I'll refresh my single target ward and THEN work on healing the damage up, always reapplying at least my single target ward when it repops before casting heals.  This seems to be a commonality amongst players of both shaman.</p><p>If by Bane Warding you mean the debuff that makes the target proc wards off of it's attacks, it only really comes into play on long fights (read:  raids).  It can fire off of AoE attacks from NPC's, so could in theory be proced onto a 24-person raid.  Out of habit, I still use this debuff in normal groups and while soloing.  There's some threads concerning exactly how useful the debuff is, but it's essentially a free ward and worth casting.</p><p>If by Bane Warding you mean the set bonus from the shard armor that adds a damage shield to your wards, it is rather handy to wear all the time unless you have gear that is more beneficial.  The damage shield triggers off ANY damage, so whenver your group is getting peppered with AE attacks the attacker is getting burned by the damage shield.  In a raid setting this can be a significant amount of damage depending, but keep in mind that the damage is attributed to the person getting hit (if you're parsing to see how much it's doing).  I do have gear I wear over the set, but pull it out for fights where I know there will be lots of back-to-back damage on my group via an AE.</p><p>As far as the dog's ward, it is going to vary depending on your level.  It will never be a significant ward, but you can never have too many wards up and absorbing damage.  At max level, it's around 600-700 or so.  Over time, the little wards can add up to quite a bit in a fight.</p>

[flowercivicsi]

<p>If you power leveled your toon there is the reason right there as to why you are not attuned with what you should be casting.  Always have your wards up on the pull unless specifically asked to not pre-ward by a tank, and refresh as needed.</p><p>I recommend taking the time to sit down with your defiler and read each spell you have in detail as this will give you a better intuition as to what to cast and when.  There is no specific cast order for a defiler that is a winning combo as things change always and no 1, 2, 3 casting order can cover that. </p><p>For example a fight may seem easy, and then a tank decides to go crazy putting on his DPS duds with no protection and go dual wield... All of the sudden you went from smooth sailing to needing to catch up.  It pretty much always changes from zone to zone, and mob to mob so there is no specific cast order. </p><p><strong>Wards: </strong>(pro's and con's - based on the severity or ease of the fight you need to make the call)</p><ul><li>Group Ward always prevents the most damage, but takes the longest to cast/recast.</li><li>Single Target Ward - Is a good amount, with a faster cast/recast time than group</li><li>Deathward - small ward, fast cast time, 1 min reuse</li><li>Soulward (AA choice) - Instacast, huge ward amount, can die if you don't use properly, 5 min recast</li></ul>

[DontHitMe]

<p>Thanks gusy/gals a lot, that started me in a very good direction for wards.</p><p>I do have another question about debuffs.  I used to have a warden and my firm opinion is that you cure at all costs.  I would cure before I would heal (obviously not letting the tank or whoever die), but getting dots off was my number 1 priority.  With that said, how does the debuffs work with a defiler?  Should I be putting a huge emphasis, based on my theory stated above, or should the MAIN focus be on healing.  I understand that this sound counter intuitive but I am trying to draw a correlation between the warden and defiler in this sense.</p><p>Thanks so much for the advise!!!!</p>

[flowercivicsi]

<p>Instances: Don't worry about debuffs, as most mobs are cake w/o having to worry about them.</p><p>Raids: Try diligently to apply & maintain them as a secondary priority, but place your main focus on preventing damage and of course curing.</p><p>That's pretty much what I do in these types of scenarios.  <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Kari]

<p>I almost always start out with a preward for both the group and single target wards before the pull.  I also prioritize cures over everything else, except if the tank is going to die. Just as everyone else has said, there is no real order because each fight things go differently.</p><p>In an easy zone the mobs tend to die too fast for debuffs, so I preward, mythical clicky then use my damage spells. When i am in a group with poison/disease dps I will use my dps spells that debuff this first (it makes my warlock friend happy). Otherwise I will use my dot that debuffs the mob attack speed and then the other dps spells, but generally the mobs will die before these effects really matter. Most of the time the mobs will die before my prewards go down, but I refresh them as needed, and seldon use direct heals.</p><p>In more difficult zones I preward, then I debuff mob attack speed and bane of warding, then refresh wards, mythical clicky, debuff mob stats, thrown down spiritual shrine then just refresh wards, heals and start the dps spells. I send in the dog toward the beginning of the fight, but after the mob is faced away from us.</p><p>In raids my guild does the easier raids, so we aren't as advanced as most. I generally follow the same casting order i have above for difficult instances, except that i generally am too busy curing, healing and debuffing to do any dps.</p><p>If you leveled your defiler by being mentored by level 80 raid geared folks, I would recommend that you start joining some pugs from the level channel and practice healing on tanks that are not so well geared. It will get you some experience to handle emergency situations a lot better. I had to do this with my templar alt, she was leveled mentored by a raid geared guardian and trouby and neither of them took much damage at all, it wasn't until i took her out pugging that i encountered any emergency situations to learn from.</p>

[Tehom]

<p>Pretty much all excellent advice. One thing I should mention is that on higher level raid mobs, like the high oranges you see later on in TSO, is that our dot/wis debuff is surprisingly useful at the start of fights to help all debuffs land. Wis debuffs on the whole tend to be undervalued by people because dispatch/other resist buffs are a huge swing, but they're really good to get important debuffs in within a few seconds on engages, and for epicx2 adds and the like.</p>