Which Mele Priest for 3 man group

[Hugatr]

<p>Hi all</p><p>I'm looking for some advice on which of the mele priests would be best for the following 3 man group.</p><p>SK,Coercer,....... or</p><p>Pally,illusionist...... ?</p><p>I have played both the inquisitor and the warden and like them both equally, my question is which of the mele healers would bring the most to this group makeup?</p><p>Thanks for all replies</p>

[Crismorn]

<p>Mystic imo</p>

[Brook]

<p>Warden</p>

[Oakum]

<p>I would say any of them would be good BUT you could get better buffs with the inquisitor or mystic over the warden and the chanters would speed up their casting (only down side of being a cleric or shaman) plus they have better armor to take hits better.  The down side is their casting times which inquisitor (from what I understand) has many aa's at the upper end which counter it.</p><p>Wards from shaman are considered the best tank healers because they actually prevent damage, reactives from clerics are second because they are an instantaneous heal as soon as damage is done buying time for longer casting direct heals. Druid regens are last because, even if they have more overall heal potential, ticks of the heal over time are usually wasted or not enough to keep up a tank that takes back to back large hits that a ward or reactive buy enough time to get the tank high enough in hitpoints to survive the second big hit.</p><p>The Warden (my favorite) can be an extra evac for the group and cast ports to help move from zone to zone and has quick casting heals compared to the other two melee healers.  Wardens and mystics get a buff called Spirit of the Wolf (SoW) that can be enhanced to 45 percent runspeed for wardens which can allow your group to train through dangerous areas and dungeons as well as an AA that prevents the group from being rooted and reduces snares on it.</p><p>Until you get the aa's to spec them for melee they will of course just be nuking.</p><p>I really cant say that there is any one best melee healer with that setup though.  I would say play them to about 20 or 25 to find out what you like best. It will only take a couple of hours.</p>

[KatrinaDeath]

<p>Mystic-</p><p>Dog is very valueable in 90% of the content you will encounter.</p>

[Hene]

<p><cite>Oakum wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Wards from shaman are considered the best tank healers because they actually prevent damage, reactives from clerics are second because they are an instantaneous heal as soon as damage is done buying time for longer casting direct heals. Druid regens are last because, even if they have more overall heal potential, ticks of the heal over time are usually wasted or not enough to keep up a tank that takes back to back large hits that a ward or reactive buy enough time to get the tank high enough in hitpoints to survive the second big hit.</p></blockquote><p>I'd have to disagree with this.  Just because a healer is <em>efficient</em> does not mean he is the <em>best</em>.  In term of healing a 3 man group, a warden will likely offer the best survivability.  For heroic content in general wardens are untouchable by inquisitors and mystics.  Yeah mystics are the most efficient, and wards help prevent spikes, but honestly, you will not be finding much if any spike damage in heroic content.</p><p>And I would also recomend mystic, but not because of heal efficiency; more because they provide moderate DPS (which you will need since you have no pure DPS classes in that group), good buffs, and debuffs that help the damage output the SK (nox debuff) as well as reducing enemy HP.</p>

[Jemoo]

I have some experience with duoing a tank/melee healer and here is what I've seen. A SK and Inquisy can be very awesome. The DPS buffs that Inquisitors have mix very well with SKs. Both of these classes use reactive heals so the healing shouldn't be a big problem. A Mystic and SK can bee good as well. I don't have a whole lot of experience leveling with this set up but at end game it's a very good tank/healer combo. A Pally and mystic can be good as well. A mystic's casts are much longer but the Pally can spot heal while the Mystic catches up on wards if there is an emergency. I don't have any experience with the an Inquisitor and Pally but I'm sure that can be very good as well. I can't really speak from experience about the warden but I know my guildy can put out loads of dps as a fury with our SK friend tanking but this is end game instances and not leveling. The most important thing that I've found while leveling is that power regen is the only issue with a crusader tank in a duo. Both classes rely heavily on their power to hold agro and heal (a little more so than warriors anyway) and both eat through power. Power is the only thing that keeps my SK from chain pulling entire zones with an Inquisitor duoing. As for power regen, both Illusionists and Coercers used to be very good at dpsing while keeping power up but it's a little tougher now. As long as the player knows their toon then it is still very much possible to do both. I know that all three of the melee healers can put out decent DPS but it depends on the player whether they can heal while doing so. I'd say go with the type of heals that you are most comfortable with and the DPS will come later. It's important to make sure you can heal at the same time because you will be expected to be a healer when you get to grouping with more people. This is just my experience with the classes so don't take any of it as the only truth and the only right answers.

[Hugatr]

<p>OK, First things first, I would like to thank everyone for your Incredibly helpful comments, the community is the main reason I keep coming back to EQ2 <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>What I mainly want to know is which healer would allow our small 3 man group to do the most content while leveling. I like dungeon running so I need to take that into account. Exactly how far would this threesome be able to progress dungeon/heroic encounters wise before we need to add the extra 2 ?</p><p>We fully intend to join a guild at some point in the future but in the meantime we will be predominantly 3 men (and a dog if i go Mystic!).  I dont know if it makes any difference but we have played together for the last 8 years so we know how each other work pretty well (family groups ftw!)</p><p>Thanks again for all replies so far and anymore that are forthcoming</p>

[LardLord]

<p>Depending on how much effort you're willing to put into it and how many AAs you get along the way, you may be able to do heroic content all the way up to TSO with any of those three healers as part of your trio.  You might even be able to get through a few of the TSO zones if you're really uber, but I'd be pretty impressed after trying it (and failing) on my Fury with a Brigand+Shadowknight.  After you get past T8, you'll probably be able to do quite a few of the TSO zones (pretty sure even the TSO zones that scale in level are quite a bit easier in T9).  You also should be able to mess around in The Hole and do one or two of the TSF instances when you get to T9. </p><p>As you can see by the replies here, there's not real clear answer to your question.  I'm surprised Inquisitor is under-represented in this thread, since that class has some really nice buffs too.  Despite all being "battlepriests," these three classes heal quite differently, so I'd recommend trying them out and seeing which feels the best.  I personally love healing on my Inquisitor, hated Mystic when I tried it, and I like, but don't love, my Fury (which uses regens like Wardens).  You can get a feel for it by level 20 or so, I think.</p><p>Leveling up through heroic content with a shorthanded group is really a blast, by the way <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Calain80]

With a team of Crusader, Chanter and Battle Priest you should be able to do all content until level 70 while it is still yellow. That will work with all three classes. Mystic offers: - Nice buffs (mostly defensive) - Great debuffs (esp. for a SK tank) - Wards - Dog for pulling and a bit dps - 40% run speed Warden offers: - A few Buffs - HoTs - Druid Ring for easy porting from everywhere - Evac - 45% run speed Inquisitor offers: - Great Buffs (early on only for Melee) (mostly offensive) - Great Debuffs - Reacives - several Stun and Interrupt abilities

[TheSpin]

<p><cite>Calberak@Valor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>With a team of Crusader, Chanter and Battle Priest you should be able to do all content until level 70 while it is still yellow. That will work with all three classes. Mystic offers: - Nice buffs (mostly defensive) - Great debuffs (esp. for a SK tank) - Wards - Dog for pulling and a bit dps - 40% run speed Warden offers: - A few Buffs - HoTs - Druid Ring for easy porting from everywhere - Evac - 45% run speed Inquisitor offers: - Great Buffs (early on only for Melee) (mostly offensive) - Great Debuffs - Reacives - several Stun and Interrupt abilities </blockquote><p>Inquisitor offers no stuns other than the deaggro (they do have a root and a fear, but only useful as short term crowd control), but they are by far the most offensive and DPS capable melee priests.  Mystic and warden are more on the defensive side of the priest setup.  High level inquis buffs DPS, Haste, Reuse speed, and has at least 2 group wide damage procs.  I don't think any other melee priest can come close on the dps output either.   Depending on the AA setup you can also set an inquisitor up to take over for the tank if the real tank goes down, at least long enough for him to rez the tank (see STR and Stamina endline abilities).</p>

[Calain80]

Actually we have four stuns now that they fixed the reactive damage shields: Repent, Heresy, Stamina CA from AA and Open AE Detaunt Then we have three Interrupts: STR CA from AA, singe and group DD.

[LardLord]

<p><cite>Calberak@Valor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Actually we have four stuns now that they fixed the reactive damage shields: Repent, Heresy, Stamina CA from AA and Open AE Detaunt Then we have three Interrupts: STR CA from AA, singe and group DD.</blockquote><p>Yup, Bolt of Power in the STR line is a proc that fires a lot (50% with full AAs) and interrupts the target half the time as well.  Interrupts are nice on a several encounters, especially when you're shorthanded and can't just power through the mob.</p>

[Rocc]

<p>In my opinion fury is your best bet. But out of your choices you've suggested I would recommend the warden. Druids got a huge boost with SF and I'm a big fan of their healing, utility and dps abilities.</p>

[Hugatr]

<p>Thank you all for all your help and advice, I went with warden in the end <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>So to reiterate, Our group will consist of Warden, Pally and Coercer, you guys think we will be ok to do dungeons untill we reach TSO content? Can I ask about what level that would be please?</p><p>Thanks again to everyone for all your help !</p>

[Calain80]

The real level for TSO instances is 80, but you should be able to do the easy ROK instances in this level range. So you should be able to go up to ~ 85 before needing a full group to do the SF instances.

[LardLord]

<p>Even at 90, you may be able to trio Eurudin(sp?) Library and/or Vasty Deep: Conservatory, as well as The Hole contested zone.  Actually, once you get to 80, you can probably get all the way from 80 to 90 in The Hole and avoid having to group outside your trio until end-game content.</p><p>You'll just have to see if the pace the mobs die is fast enough for you...with a Crusader, Warden, and Enchanter, that might be the only problem. </p><p>Also, definitely make use of the AA slider...if you end up with too few AAs, content that we're suggesting should be doable might not be.  I think some people have gotten ~200 AAs by around level 50, which would certainly make things a lot easier for you.  My suggestion, though admittedly this isn't based on an exact science, would be to have <em>at least </em>100 AA by level 70, and 140 AA by level 80.</p><p>EDIT: Also, assuming your Enchanter uses his control effects wisely, you won't have to do very much healing on your Warden until around level 70 or so (unless you're mass pulling, I suppose).  Keep that in mind when choosing AAs and such <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Hene]

<p>I duo conserv and lib with my necro friend on my mystic and we can clear all save 1 or 2 named usually; lv 90 is important for doing most SF stuff, but most TSO content can be done (~fairly~ easily) at lv 80, and once you hit 82 or 83 and get some nice gear you should be able to plow through them</p>

[Hugatr]

<p>Hi all</p><p>There has been a bit of a shift in the group makeup and I was wondering if all your advice still held true. Basically we now have a group makeup of Monk, Coercer and my Warden.</p><p>My question is whether the Warden is still a good choice for this makeup or would I be better off with something different. After playing for a couple of weeks I find that the mele healer aspect is no longer as important to me as I am healing most of the time anyway and this character is group only.</p><p>So out of all the healers, which do you think would be the best fit to replace the warden in the group makeup above?</p><p>Thanks in advance for all your help.</p>

[Calain80]

Your Warden should still do fine. Same would be true for a Fury or a Shaman (Defiler or Mystic) Just don't play a Cleric with a Brawler tank. They just don't fit well together.

[Jemoo]

I agree with Calberak, Druid or Shaman works better with a brawler tank. Cleric's reactives are for when the tank gets hit and a brawler isn't supposed to get hit. From experience, shamans do well, but their actual heals are not good for the spike damage that brawlers seem to take. I haven't been healing much since the expac came out and I know brawlers have gotten better as tanks but I'm not sure if it have stopped them from taking spike damage.

[blaiddur]

<p>actually spike damage wise shamans would be better, however if the dmg gets through the wards there may be trouble as the shamans cast slower then druids so they cant heal the tank back up as quickly. the druid will be able to heal up faster when damage is taken however has trouble with spike damage prevention which a shamans wards do help with. So it comes down to do you want to prevent damage or be able to heal fast when that dmg is taken. either way a brawler tank is gonna need the heals when they get hit cause they take alot of damage when they do.</p>

[Xonth101]

<p><cite>Swisha@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Mystic-</p><p>Dog is very valueable in 90% of the content you will encounter.</p></blockquote><p>What do you mean by this, Please explain kind sir. And is it work for defilers dog too.</p>