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The truth about Chokethorn

ascan7
ascan7
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When Summerset will hit, healer will be able t run a monster set, so there were many discussions about healer monster set and i heard many things about the Chokethorn set. Many people think that it sucks, mainly because its target is random.
I did some test the last day. With the event, i was able to PUG DLC dungeons and, even at normal, it was a nightmare. So many squishy DPS without even the most basic that got one-shotted by everything. Chokethorn was very handy and saved many squishies from certain death. I will put a list of ros and cons regarding my findings:
PROS:
1) the heal is huge and smart target. When Chokethorn procs, the squishy with 1% health will immediately go back to at least 50% with you doing nothing. It's like a Resto ult, but with only the heal
2) huge distance. You can almost position everywhere and chokethorn will still be in range.
3)big proc chance. It proc every time you do something that heals, not only abilities. As a nightblade, Strife procced Chokethorn many times for, but it can also proc from non-abilities, like heavy attacks.
4) the heal is so huge that you can basically stop healing while active. That means you can freely reposition, apply buff/debuff and do heavy attacks to replenish magicka
5) the uptime is great. 4 seconds of burst healing, 6-7 seconds of actually working, 4 seconds of huge healing again.
CONS
1) it only heals. Expert player don't need extra heals, so they could benefit more from other sets.
2) you can't control when it proc. You have to play around the proc and not opposite. Remember when i said you can freely heavy attack when Chokethorn is active? Well, if it procs while you are almost at full magicka, heavy attacking won't help you very much, right? So, sometimes the "Chokethorn window" will come in the perfect moment, but many times it will feel wasted
3) the plant can die. Honestly, it didn't happened to me, but i was in normal. The plant was attacked, damaged and sometimes even stunned by the enemies. So i guess the plant can surely die during veteran dungeon.

So my final verdict is: great set or non-expert healers: people who still need practice, have problem with resources, and so on. Great set for PUG and uncordinated groups.
Redundant set for expert healers and cordinated groups.
  • Aeslief
    Aeslief
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    For what it’s worth, I was using Chokethorn on my magplar when I was first learning to heal. I really enjoyed it and it definitely bailed me out of some fights, like Adjudicator when everyone is spread out, or the final boss of BC2. The range is what makes it great, and LOS is not an issue. There are probably better choices for experts running with experts, but for me it was a great crutch for a noob running with other noobs.
  • Crafts_Many_Boxes
    Crafts_Many_Boxes
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    I've let this set sit in my bags since I don't heal much and when I do, I just run two 5pc sets. I might actually heal more when summerset hits, and I'll definitely be using chokethorn.

    Personally, I hate the idea of the healer being some sort of buff machine. I'm an old school healer, I came primarily from WoW and Rift. Healers should heal. It's fine to have a secondary function, but it should be a secondary function. You shouldn't be planning your gear around your secondary function.

    And yeah, I know the argument in favor of buff-bot healers. Healing is too "easy" at the highest level, so you might as well focus on buffing. Well, that's great for those players, but I'm sure the majority of us don't actually find healing veteran content so simple. Hell, coming from MMOs where you can actually free click, I've almost exclusively used addons like healbot and clickbox healer with grid overlays and different mouse buttons assigned to each heal. Actually having to target players with your reticle to heal a specific target is a huge pain by comparison, and something I'm still getting used to (since again I don't heal much).

    One has to wonder how many newer or unskilled players look at these meta guides and pic sets like SPC when they might have prevented wipes if they'd have been running sets with healing procs like combat phys or sanctuary.
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