Can a T2 Fabled Mystic heal Crucible and other TSO instances?

[Arunhakk]

<p>You might think I'm looking for more than a "yes" answer... and you'd be right! <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>My wife plays a Mystic in the game, and is having issues keeping up with the other healer classes in fights like the main boss in Najena's Hollow Tower.  She is one piece shy of a full T2 armor set, and has her fabled Epic.</p><p>Here's the rub- I've read post after post from Mystics who say they can keep up with all the other healer classes in all situations, but the wife seems to be having problems with it.  She played an outstanding EQ1 cleric, lead the heal team on our raids, etc.  She's very smart and a good problem-solver, but this situation seems to be knocking her feet out from under her.  When she heard that one of the Wardens in our guild solo-healed Crucible (and she can't), she calmly told everyone "see ya", logged... and hasn't come back to the game since.  <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>So the question I put forth is- why??  Do wards suck that bad?  She's specced out for max healing in her AA's, but she says that when she solo-heals some of the boss mobs in the TSO instances she is in 'panic-heal' mode, and doesn't even have enough time to fire off her debuffs or the tank will drop- the very same tank that the Warden seems to keep up with no problems!</p><p>Please help- any advice is appreciated!  I love this game, but I don't want to see her walk away from it completely disheartened.  It used to be something we did together... but I'm not going to let it become something that keeps us apart. : </p><p>Sad Hubby</p>

[Baccalarium]

<p>You didn't mention if the gear on the warden was better than your wife's?   I've seen a mythicalled warden do some amazing healing.   Nor did you mention if there were other differences in the groups,  add a support class in the mix and it can make a substantial difference.  </p><p>Personally I've never solo healed crucible, and tier 2 with a mix of stuff  from instances and some raid gear from what drops off trash in shard of hate and the first 3 mobs in ward of elements.  (e.g. typically small raids).   I have solo healed a friendly group of 5 in hollow tower though that annoying drake took caused a few deaths.   Among the group of friends and allies I run with I'm likely the first healer asked for if they want to do something thats expected to be challanging.  But thats as likely gear experience and good humor as it is class.  I can't imagine rolling another healer class with any expectation that it would make me more desireable for groups.</p><p>Our shaman wards depend on knowing where the damage is going, where druids excell at recovering an entire group after damage is done.   Boss mob in Cruicible isn't really a healer fight;   if group does what it should the AE's are prevented,   the group doesn't,  a druid might be bit better suited to recovering.</p><p>Shaman healing is much different than traditional healing,   I have seen some players that just couldn't get used to the idea that you didn't wait till someone was damaged to heal them, you had to know who to heal and heal them before they got hit.</p>

[Wullail]

<p>Yes...</p><p>A lot of it involves the Tank going defensive and in some fights the position of the healer (the Cruicible last named) is key , unfortunately a lot of groups the tank is in offensive mode and on the harder fights TC should be on the mystic , a lot of groups it goes to the wizards...she should ask for TC when she thinks she'll need it.</p><p>A basic rule of thumb is , use single target wards and heals to keep the tank up , use the group wards and heal to keep everyone else up , if the squishies are pulling agro and dying...let them...</p>

[Novadarkst]

<p>Your wife needs to keep trying mate, i think she just needs some practice in healing high deeps encounters to be honest. The hardest fights to heal as a shaman are the heavy AE counters, like the last guy in crucible. Its not easymode healing like a warden is, but its definitely more than doable.</p><p>I got back to the game recently, and havent played my mystic for more than 3 weeks, i dont have T2 yet. Ive solo healed crucible in full dps spec and dps gear, even without a chanter. So its possible. But all that being said, it has alot to do with how the group is setup and how capable the tank is. The only way i can see it being impossible is if the group dps is so low i run out of power before the fight is over.</p><p>Not sure if the wulla dude has ever played a shaman. You definitely need to use the groupward as a tankward, since the points on it are collective between group members and it gives the highest amount of healing relative to casttime.</p><p>My casting order is something along the lines of:</p><p>prepull: groupward, singleward, bolster</p><p>pull: groupward, torper, single, debuff if the wards are up singletarget heal if they arent.</p><p>cycle wards and always use single target when its up, even if casting other spells. cast group ward if its up and the single target is on cooldown and the tank is above 50%, if below 50% cast heal and singleward. Always make sure torper is up as well. Use the group heal to heal the group and if in healspec pop ritual with the grp heal. debuff when both wards and the big heal is on cooldown and if torper is on or on cooldown. if the tank is above 50% only heal if both wards and torper is on cooldown.</p><p>If the tank dies when doing that, its not the mystics fault imo.</p><p>Mystics can do just the same as other healers, its just not easymode rolling your face on the keyboard like a warden is</p><p>Good luck!</p>

[Wullail]

<p><cite>Novadarkstar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Not sure if the wulla dude has ever played a shaman. You definitely need to use the groupward as a tankward, since the points on it are collective between group members and it gives the highest amount of healing relative to casttime.<p>Good luck!</p></blockquote><p>heh..check my sig , I did say it was basically , but yes I was saying don't waste single heals and wards on group members...the rest of the group have to be kept up using the group heals and wards.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>When I was still sporting the T2 armor, I solo healed every group zone in the game with the exception of Palace of Ferzhul and Ykesha's Outer Stronghold.  Lower Corridors was very challenging, especially the jail named.  I honestly never found Crucible all that challenging once we figured out the reflect on the one mob.  In T3 armor now, I think I could probably solo heal Outer, Palace . . . yes . . . but there would be some wipes.</p><p>A lot of it does have to do with the people you play with.  If a tank is losing aggro left and right, then you have squishy people eating up your group wards and generally making life hard for you.  If squishy people are being stupid and not allowing the tank to get good aggro before they ripe the mobs spine out, it makes life hard.</p><p>Can it be done?  Unequivocably, yes.  Can it always be done?  That depends entirely on the group at hand.</p>

[Shoushin]

<p>heh, not much left to be said then. (i have mystic too t2 shard armor, w/o mythic and can solo heal ef/ls instances. heck, i am even among the scroll burners sometimes... )</p><p>so it's definitely solohealable.</p>

[FreddyRo]

<p>Defiler here, some general advice:</p><p>Shamans are the "heavy artillery" of healers.  Wards are slow but powerful, so as someone before mentioned, you have to be a step ahead of the healing.  Because of this, ProfitUI is a godsend for shamans.  Your wife can monitor time remaining <em>and </em>hp's remaining in her wards, and start recasting before they are down to 0.  (not to mention click-to-cures Profit has)  Download ProfitUI.... it take a couple days to get used to, but will dramatically help.</p><p>An enchanter in group is a big help due to stuns/stifles....  A decent enchanter is like having another 1/2 healer to help.  A good enchanter is better some healers.  Until she becomes more skilled, put a chanter in her group.</p><p>And I'll second what's been mentioned.  Pre-ward on every pull.  Keep both group ward and ST ward up all the time.  Group heal for your groupmates.  Forget dps on a shaman - heals/cures and debuffs until you get those down.  Study EQ2Flames and this msg board for strats and AA/gear advice.  Keep a RL journal with strats on mobs if needed.</p><p>Good luck.  I had a family member frustrated by TSO raid healing so he now plays dps classes, and has way more fun.  That's always an option.</p>

[Arunhakk]

<p>Thanks all, for the very good advice!</p><p>I think the ProfitUI idea is probably going to be the key- I think she has never really gotten over the reactive healing idea.  Being able to see the 'health' left on a Ward is probably the thing that will help her most (she's really cheap with spending power unnecessarily <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  )</p><p>I'll make some suggestions and see if she buys it! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Shoushin]

<p>hovering your mouse over the ward icons in the maintained spells will also give hint of the remaining amount. i never used profitui and im very well off w/o it. it's matter of preference.</p><p>one more thing for wards. if you have some bloody dps with that bloody choker that will drain the group ward as well. so it will end sooner than one would expect. *sigh* might worth putting a single target ward on that chokered dps.</p>

[Lord Hackenslash]

<p>two things come to mind in this situation.</p><p>1: Bloodthirsty choker. A lot of DPS are wearing the chokers these days expecially classes that really shouldn't (enchanters, rogues who do far more damage to themselves than they gain in DPS) and for a shaman this can be really hard to deal with until you have some proc gear to counteract it. The chokers eat up a large amount of the group ward each time it is used effectively taking away the most powerful healing tool she has. </p><p>2: DPS are not paying attention to their part in preventing damage. For the final mob in crucible they need to burn the books and scrolls, if 2 or more scrolls are left out then the AoE can easily break through wards. In the case of Najena's final fight, there are flaming whirlwinds that spawn and I constantly see DPS just standing in the middle of them taking damage when moving 5 feet would fix it. This in turn eats up the group ward and means the tank gets less healing.</p><p>Full T2 is a very strong suit of armor and should be more than sufficient to keep a group alive in most instances as long as they are similarly geared.</p><p>Also, is she using torpor? A lot of tanks don't like it and ask the mystic not to cast it but it is one of the strongest healing tools in the game, and I have seen some tanks tell their mystic healers not to cast it. If she has been asked not to cast it, let her know those tanks are idiots.</p><p>Aside from that check out the rest of the mystic forums here and on Flames if you can handle the language and ego posturing there.</p>

[Banditman]

<p><cite>Melina@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>two things come to mind in this situation.</p><p>1: Bloodthirsty choker. A lot of DPS are wearing the chokers these days expecially classes that really shouldn't (enchanters, rogues who do far more damage to themselves than they gain in DPS) and for a shaman this can be really hard to deal with until you have some proc gear to counteract it. The chokers eat up a large amount of the group ward each time it is used effectively taking away the most powerful healing tool she has. </p></blockquote><p>This can be a problem, but don't knock the choker.  It's one of the single most powerful items in the game.  While it "says" it's a 10% increase to base, in effect it turns into a LOT more than 10% effective increase.</p><p>If you're having to deal with a lot of this, there are a number of things that can help.</p><p>1.  Dogdog.  No, really!  His proc'ed ward is about 450 HP, and it's not a shared ward, every person gets their own 450 HP ward.</p><p>2.  Ancestral Barrier.  This comes from TSO gear.  Sometimes it's on a chest piece, sometimes it's a set bonus.  Either way, it's a great effect.</p><p>3.  Kindred Restoration.  When group ward breaks, group heal triggers.  Good stuff.</p><p>4.  Shadow tree Group Heal bonus.  Makes our Group direct heal incredibly effective.</p><p>Obviously there are a ton of items out there, these are just the fairly common items and AA ideas.  If a Mystic has a REH, chokers become irrelevant.</p>

[Tehom]

<p><cite>Arunhakk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Thanks all, for the very good advice!</p><p>I think the ProfitUI idea is probably going to be the key- I think she has never really gotten over the reactive healing idea.  Being able to see the 'health' left on a Ward is probably the thing that will help her most (she's really cheap with spending power unnecessarily <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" />  )</p></blockquote><p>That's a major, major mistake she's making there. Efficiency is something that was important in EQ1, but is greatly deemphasized in EQ2 because wards are so strong at preventing spikes. Get her manawell items that are tradeable like the ancient sathirian clasp and the siphoning sapphire earring so that she is getting back power on group ward casts and it'll change her entire gameplay.</p>

[Banditman]

<p><cite>Chath@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Arunhakk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Thanks all, for the very good advice!</p><p>I think the ProfitUI idea is probably going to be the key- I think she has never really gotten over the reactive healing idea.  Being able to see the 'health' left on a Ward is probably the thing that will help her most (she's really cheap with spending power unnecessarily <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" />  )</p></blockquote><p>That's a major, major mistake she's making there. Efficiency is something that was important in EQ1, but is greatly deemphasized in EQ2 because wards are so strong at preventing spikes. Get her manawell items that are tradeable like the ancient sathirian clasp and the siphoning sapphire earring so that she is getting back power on group ward casts and it'll change her entire gameplay.</p></blockquote><p>I missed that part, good catch.  This is exactly the case.  Once you have Manawell items in sufficient quantity, each cast of a Group Ward or Group Heal should be a net power INCREASE.</p><p>Cast, cast, cast, cast.  You can't proc unless you are casting.</p>

[Eugam]

<p><cite>Arunhakk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>You might think I'm looking for more than a "yes" answer... and you'd be right! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p><p>My wife plays a Mystic in the game, and is having issues keeping up with the other healer classes in fights like the main boss in Najena's Hollow Tower. She is one piece shy of a full T2 armor set, and has her fabled Epic.</p><p>Here's the rub- I've read post after post from Mystics who say they can keep up with all the other healer classes in all situations, but the wife seems to be having problems with it. She played an outstanding EQ1 cleric, lead the heal team on our raids, etc. She's very smart and a good problem-solver, but this situation seems to be knocking her feet out from under her. When she heard that one of the Wardens in our guild solo-healed Crucible (and she can't), she calmly told everyone "see ya", logged... and hasn't come back to the game since. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /></p><p>So the question I put forth is- why?? Do wards suck that bad? She's specced out for max healing in her AA's, but she says that when she solo-heals some of the boss mobs in the TSO instances she is in 'panic-heal' mode, and doesn't even have enough time to fire off her debuffs or the tank will drop- the very same tank that the Warden seems to keep up with no problems!</p><p>Please help- any advice is appreciated! I love this game, but I don't want to see her walk away from it completely disheartened. It used to be something we did together... but I'm not going to let it become something that keeps us apart. :</p><p>Sad Hubby</p></blockquote><p>Tell her to come back <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I play both. Mystic and Warden and they have both they ups and downs.</p><p>Roughly said:</p><p>Mystic slow, but wards last over stuns, knockbacks etc.</p><p>Warden fast, but stuns, knockbacks and similar situations are scary.</p><p>Mystic requires a good group that doesnt eat up the tanks wards, where the warden doesnt care.</p><p>The Mystic has a disadvantage where the situation requires a manual reaction aka. press button. The warden has a disadvantage where game mechanics aka stuns disable his buttons.</p><p>Crucible is a bit a mess for the mystic. The AE is massive and hits the full group. This requires a fast manual reactions and thats why the warden has his noose ahaed in crucible.</p><p>Different situation is for example the boss on the platfrom in the Abbey. This named is quite a pita for the warden where the mystic doesnt stuggle that much.</p><p>Unfortunately many nameds are specialized nowadays, like mini raid bosses. In the old days every healer healed the same in heroic content. Nowadays this is different.</p><p>In cases where the mystic struggles you should try and bring a Illusionist for time compression on the mystic. And she should be never to shy to cast any heal pet available.</p>

[graewulf]

<p><cite>Banditman wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Melina@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>two things come to mind in this situation.</p><p>1: Bloodthirsty choker. A lot of DPS are wearing the chokers these days expecially classes that really shouldn't (enchanters, rogues who do far more damage to themselves than they gain in DPS) and for a shaman this can be really hard to deal with until you have some proc gear to counteract it. The chokers eat up a large amount of the group ward each time it is used effectively taking away the most powerful healing tool she has. </p></blockquote><p>This can be a problem, but don't knock the choker.  It's one of the single most powerful items in the game.  While it "says" it's a 10% increase to base, in effect it turns into a LOT more than 10% effective increase.</p><p>If you're having to deal with a lot of this, there are a number of things that can help.</p><p>1.  Dogdog.  No, really!  His proc'ed ward is about 450 HP, and it's not a shared ward, every person gets their own 450 HP ward.</p><p>2.  Ancestral Barrier.  This comes from TSO gear.  Sometimes it's on a chest piece, sometimes it's a set bonus.  Either way, it's a great effect.</p><p>3.  Kindred Restoration.  When group ward breaks, group heal triggers.  Good stuff.</p><p>4.  Shadow tree Group Heal bonus.  Makes our Group direct heal incredibly effective.</p><p>Obviously there are a ton of items out there, these are just the fairly common items and AA ideas.  If a Mystic has a REH, chokers become irrelevant.</p></blockquote><p>I must be bugged then, because choker damage (and damage from the fighters ring from SoH) don't come off wards at all. It must be healed normally. I've been the lone healer in the combat group on a raid and always keep a group ward up, but those item users always drop hps and nothing is removed from my ward. It stays at full strength while those users drop hps. ST heals and group heals are the only ones that heal them. And I use all 4 of those things above, as well as, a Star of Malice and the Rune Etched Helm. Choker and ring damage MAY be absorbed by item based wards (I don't always have time to look at those numbers), but certainly not my spellcast wards.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>I only have access to a couple pretty old logs from here at work, but I found these:</p><p>(124838849<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />[Thu Jul 23 18:34:58 2009] Veshuvian's Ultraviolet Beam hits an athenaeum protector for 3234 mental damage.(124838849<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />[Thu Jul 23 18:34:58 2009] YOUR Aura of Warding absorbs 390 points of damage from being done to Veshuvian.(124838849<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />[Thu Jul 23 18:34:58 2009] Veshuvian's Vampiric Requiem hits Veshuvian for 414 focus damage.</p><p>(1248388462)[Thu Jul 23 18:34:22 2009] YOUR Umbral Warding absorbs 804 points of damage from being done to Veshuvian.(1248388462)[Thu Jul 23 18:34:22 2009] Veshuvian's Vampiric Requiem hits Veshuvian but fails to inflict any damage.</p><p>*shrug*</p>

[ThelvynD]

<p><cite>graewulf wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Banditman wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Melina@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>two things come to mind in this situation.</p><p>1: Bloodthirsty choker. A lot of DPS are wearing the chokers these days expecially classes that really shouldn't (enchanters, rogues who do far more damage to themselves than they gain in DPS) and for a shaman this can be really hard to deal with until you have some proc gear to counteract it. The chokers eat up a large amount of the group ward each time it is used effectively taking away the most powerful healing tool she has. </p></blockquote><p>This can be a problem, but don't knock the choker.  It's one of the single most powerful items in the game.  While it "says" it's a 10% increase to base, in effect it turns into a LOT more than 10% effective increase.</p><p>If you're having to deal with a lot of this, there are a number of things that can help.</p><p>1.  Dogdog.  No, really!  His proc'ed ward is about 450 HP, and it's not a shared ward, every person gets their own 450 HP ward.</p><p>2.  Ancestral Barrier.  This comes from TSO gear.  Sometimes it's on a chest piece, sometimes it's a set bonus.  Either way, it's a great effect.</p><p>3.  Kindred Restoration.  When group ward breaks, group heal triggers.  Good stuff.</p><p>4.  Shadow tree Group Heal bonus.  Makes our Group direct heal incredibly effective.</p><p>Obviously there are a ton of items out there, these are just the fairly common items and AA ideas.  If a Mystic has a REH, chokers become irrelevant.</p></blockquote><p>I must be bugged then, because choker damage (and damage from the fighters ring from SoH) don't come off wards at all. It must be healed normally. I've been the lone healer in the combat group on a raid and always keep a group ward up, but those item users always drop hps and nothing is removed from my ward. It stays at full strength while those users drop hps. ST heals and group heals are the only ones that heal them. And I use all 4 of those things above, as well as, a Star of Malice and the Rune Etched Helm. Choker and ring damage MAY be absorbed by item based wards (I don't always have time to look at those numbers), but certainly not my spellcast wards.</p></blockquote><p>It wholely depends on which ward/proc is at the forefront. If your spell cast ward is the only thing up and a scout/mage is wearing a choker you can sit there and watch your group ward slowly being eaten away with each CA/spell that your DPS is doing. If say my Rune Etched Helm procced then those go down first and then will eat into the group ward. Most times this isn't an issue for some shamans as other equipment and procs can help compensate for this but if they get overwhelmed on how much DPS is being done you might want to ask to have that person go without thier choker. I know I've had to do that a few times on some harder fights.</p><p>I have to agree with using Torpor on your tank. It's a huge ward/heal and it really shouldn't be an issue if your tank is holding aggro in one place. Just don't cast it on the initial pull some tanks like to be able to run around a bit to get into position but your group/single wards should hold up until your tank is placed and then you can cast your Torpor.</p>

[Tehom]

<p>Jewel of Animosity isn't absorbed by wards, it's treated as a fuel cost (costs associated with casting/maintaing spells). Bloodthisty Choker is absorbed by wards, though.</p>

[Gahnand]

The honest truth is: Your wife is bad at the mystic class. Either that or: She needs to get in better groups. Crucible is an interesting zone for a mystic. If the group does not have good dps or is not capable of executing the scripts properly, then it is not so easy for a mystic with subpar gear. Getting a mythical and some T3 shaman class gear will make life much easier for her.