Gear questions on MagPlar healer build

Draxund

I'm starting a healer build on my MagPlar in order to run 4-man dungeons (not trials). I'm following Alcast's Reliever and LuckyGhost's Surgeon. These builds use Spell Power Cure, Hollowfang, and a monster set. Until I can farm Hollowfang, I'll probably grab/use Winter's Respite in the meantime. Anyway, I have two main questions:

1. Most builds run the Grand Rejuv Staff on the front bar (the healing bar). But doesn't this mean that while doing all my healing, I won't benefit from the 5-piece bonus on Hollowfang (or Winters Respite)? So what's the purpose of running a healing set on the back (rather than something else for stats)?

2. For 4-man dungeons only, which monster set do you prefer: Sentinel of Rkugamz or Symphony of Blades? Also, until I can snag those, what should I run instead?

Thanks for your help!

SaliciaKeyz

Hello there

Hollowfang has a 9sec CD
So you should be able to trigger that often enough on one bar and run an arena staff on the other.

Zodiarkslayer

1.) Grand Rejuvenation is kind of the standard for Healer with the healing role. Buff healers do not use it that often.
Hollowfang is also easily maintained in a 10 sec rotation. Especially the higher your crit chance is.
2.) Sentinel is a carry set. Blades tends to not proc that often in trash fights, but it is a boon in groups with sustain issues. It is also much harder to get. Depths of Malatar can be a real challenge to group finder groups, that have not enough DPS or do not know mechanics.

Keep in mind that Darkshade 1 is one of the easiest veteran dungeons to SOLO. In a group that Monster set should be yours in no time.

Starlight_Whisper

Hollowfang is taking heavy hit. I would rethink farming this over other options.

Draxund

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

Hollowfang is taking heavy hit. I would rethink farming this over other options.

Yikes! I should have considered checking things out as the new update approaches. I purchased 5 pieces of Winter's Respite, so hopefully that is still solid. And I was about the spend all my Transmute Stones on Spell Power Cure, but maybe I'll wait to see what's up.

Know of any other big changes coming to healer?

FrancisCrawford

I like Earthgore for my monster set; it takes care of the occasional need for emergency healing before I've figured out exactly where the problem is. That said, I think it was at The Golden fairly recently, and the dungeon where one farms it is said to be pretty hard, so that may not be a practical option right now.

I don't rely much on ground-based HoTs in dungeons. People get separated too much, for good and bad reasons alike. Radiating Regeneration procs SPC (and Earthgore) for me without positioning concerns.

Besides its ground-based HoT issue, and the screen clutter it causes, Winter's Respite is due to be hit by the general proc set nerfs next week. Pity,

Draxund

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

I like Earthgore for my monster set; it takes care of the occasional need for emergency healing before I've figured out exactly where the problem is. That said, I think it was at The Golden fairly recently, and the dungeon where one farms it is said to be pretty hard, so that may not be a practical option right now.

I don't rely much on ground-based HoTs in dungeons. People get separated too much, for good and bad reasons alike. Radiating Regeneration procs SPC (and Earthgore) for me without positioning concerns.

Besides its ground-based HoT issue, and the screen clutter it causes, Winter's Respite is due to be hit by the general proc set nerfs next week. Pity,

This is really disheartening. So at this point, I feel like my thread should be changed to "what is good/great gear for healers in the U30 patch/update?" Because by this logic, Winter's Respite takes a hit and I'm assuming the Monster Sets in question also take a hit. Although we initially thought this may be a boon to PvE, it looks like we have some decent size mountains to climb based on the 7.0.2 "fix" to get benefit from proc sets. So for a filthy casual like me, who wants to be a healer, what am I looking at? Aim for pure stat sets?

GreenHere

Jorvuld's Guidance might be worth a look for you, @Draxund . It's a good set to have (a lot of builds pair it with things like the also excellent Roaring Opportunist or other setups that provide lots of Major/Minor Buffs -- in particular it's used for extending Major Force uptime) but in general I feel like it's always a solid recommendation for new healers since it helps ease the burden of keeping up regular buffs like those from Combat Prayer, or any sources of Empower, et cetera. Not to mention the Magicka Recovery x2 + the added Healing Done stats. It just kind of makes a healer's job a bit easier, but without being a totally "selfish" set. Not too hard to farm from normal Scalecaller Peak.

If you're feeling a little frisky, you can try running Powerful Assault with SPC to provide even more raw damage boost to your allies! Due to PA having stamina-centric bonuses, though, it can make your sustain a bit harder and your heals a bit weaker; but it generally isn't much of a problem when you're not in tough endgame content. PA + SPC tends to help weaker groups out more than "better" builds that provide more sustain or % based buffs, since boosting weaksauce damage by ~5% is still weaksauce damage, ya know? And the PA set can be bought from guild trader or from PvP, so it's pretty easy to obtain.

Worm Cult gear can be a decent pick too, though it only helps with Magicka sustain (but so does Hollowfang, so...). It was the go-to for healers back in the day, and is still good for passively helping your groups out. It comes from Vaults of Madness which -- aside from being one of the longer dungeons -- is quite easy.

Gossamer has largely fallen out of favor I think, since it only procs on actual HEALS now (not over-healing), but it still has its uses in situations where dummies teammates keep dying to AoE based damage that you can't easily heal through. PUGs will often just scatter and dance around uncontrollably, yet still inexplicably find a way to stand smack in the middle of big red "DO NOT STAND HERE!!" circles at the worst possible times, so if you have Gossamer providing them the 20% resistance to said damage in those situations you can sometimes save them from themselves. It's also good for supporting a tank who's forced to stand in punishing sustained AoE attacks, but those situations are kind of rare. It's a niche set, but a good one. Comes from Cradle of Shadows, though... which is a dungeon I seldom find people that are willing to run it, sadly.

Mother's Sorrow isn't typically considered a Healer set, but it does work well on any mag build. Especially if you're building for randoms, since often the best thing to do is heal just enough and contribute your own DPS more. It's a totally selfish set, but honestly that is just what's called for in PUGs a lot of the time. It's better to focus on healing and buffing strong groups, but more often than not you'll be in... less than stellar groups. Don't be afraid to just pair a selfish damage set with SPC or whatever and call it good!


None of those sets listed above are even getting touched by the upcoming U30 changes, so that's a plus. :P



For Monster Set choices I prefer Symphony and Earthgore over the derpy little Rkugamz spider, personally. NEVER use Chokethorn, please; its proc is über annoying, and is only good for a single target anyway -- usually not even the one you want. Symphony has a good effect and a nice aesthetic, and Earthgore is a great emergency reliever set, but Rkugamz can be problematic for positioning reasons and (last I checked) the spider bot can still die for some idiotic reason making it useless in fights where it's needed most. Mixing and matching 1-piece bonuses is a viable option too, if you need to bump certain stats for yourself.

Draxund

@GreenHere strikes again with thoughtful and helpful feedback! I appreciate the rundown of various sets that may not be affected by U30. It seems then that focusing on stat-heavy sets will be an easier goal for most (wish I hadn't dropped all that gold on Winter's Respite, hehe). In all honestly, I'll probably hold off on gearing until we see what things actually feel like in U30.

Fennwitty

Ground based HoT are really tough to get full benefit from with PUGs on normal dungeons in my experience. Rarely does anyone stand still for more than 2 seconds.

I always keep Radiating Regen and other heals/skills which don't care about positioning. SPC is still good next patch, it gives a named Major buff not a scaled one.

Symphony of Blades and Earthgore are easy to use when nobody stands still. Not sure how they'll play out after next patch though as far as their effect strength.

With normal dungeons you can also run a damage monster helm (or some combination of pieces that lead to personal increased damage, presumably all proc helms will be nerfed too). Generally more effective outside of certain hard hitting fights and don't have to worry about positioning at all.

Athan1

Idk about you guys but I like my staple Nightflame. May sometimes lead to overhealing, but it's the healer's "pocket healer", I can leave the healing up to my set and I can focus on buffs/debuffs or mechanics. It also works well in solo and WB