The Healer's Guide to Uthgards World DominationA additional guide for uthgard healersIntroduction
+Chapter One: The Backbone of Midgard
+Chapter Two: The Way of the Healer
+Chapter Three: The Specialisation
+Chapter Four: The Realm Abilty Specialisation
+Chapter Five: The Equipment
--5.1 Cheap SC
--5.2 Expensive SC
--5.3 Additonal Equipment
+Chapter Six: The Controls
--6.1 Face
--6.2 Mousemovement
--6.3 Basic Mousemoves
--6.4 Qbinds
--6.5 Keyboard Mouse Combination
+Chapter Seven: The Interface
--7.1 Example
+Chapter Eight: The Healer Basics
--8.1 Postioning
--8.2 Healing
--8.3 Groupsetup
+Chapter Nine: The Aug Healers Tactics
--9.1 Buffing
--9.2 Preparation
--9.3 Opening
--9.4 Fight
--9.5 Aug Healers important sentences
+Chapter Ten: Pac Healers Tactics
--10.1 Buffing
--10.2 Preparation
--10.3 Opening
--10.4 Fight
---10.4.1 Defense Play
---10.4.2 Offense Play
--10.5 Pac Healers important sentences
+Chapter Eleven: Training
--11.1 In Emain
--11.2 Against Mobs
--11.3 Distance
Changelog
IntroductionI'm Luydor the player of Northforest one of the top ranked healers of uthgard and a fan of the The Healer's Guide to World Domination.That guide should be an addition to the The Healer's Guide to World Domination for midgards healer here on uthgard.
and explain some uthgard specific things and tactics which healers need to dominate the world of uthgard. If you have like it or have questions about it, feel free to write a comment or send me ingame.
You should read the
The Healer's Guide to World Domination before you go on reading. Not only one time!
Chapter One: The Backbone of MidgardSo you choosed to play a healer, gratulation you choosed one of the ultimate challenges you can have in Dark Age of Camelot.
Healers are the Backbone of Midgard. They are needed in every good group and they often decide if the group is good or not.
Chapter Two: The Way of the HealerYou can choose mainly between two different ways to play you healer. You can play as Aug Healer or as Pac Healer.
The Aug Healer is the main healer of the group, who is the one which shoild they in the very back of the group and heal.
Beside the heals it have a lot of utility to help the group. It have a Mezz to CC enemy tanks, can higher the swing speed of the group with cele and rupt and cc the enemys with mezz, stun and amnesie.
The Pac Healer is the Crowd Controller of Midgard, not the say it is the Crowd Controller. There is no class that have so much different CC Spells like the pac healer. It have single Mezz, AoE Mezz, Single instant Mezz, AoE instant Mezz, single stun, AoE Stun, single instant stun, AoE instant Stun, root and to control the crowd while standing in root or on a far range single and AoE Amnesia and a combat speed debuff for the enemy tanks. On the other side, the pac healer is healer and should
helping the Aug Healer that the group survive.
Chapter Three: The SpecialisationI will just explain the spec that I would recommand, maybe there are some more good specs.
Pac Healers Spec:1. Fullpac Spec44 Pacification
31 Mending
High Pac Spec, with very good CC and good heals. I would recommend this why you often play with the same Aug Healers.
Red AoE Mezz
Yellow Root
Yellow AoE Stun
All Yellow and Blue Instant CC Spells
Blue Spread Heal
Blue Fast Spec Heal
Blue slow Spec Heal
Yellow Combat Speed Debuff
Yellow Pom
2. Mend/Pac Spec36 Pacification
40 Mending
High Mend Spec, only missing the AoE instant Stun and some spells are lower then with 44 Pac. You get very good heals with that spec. I would recommend that, when you often play in puggroup, good beginner Spec.
Yellow AoE Mezz
Blue Root
Blue AoE Stun
Nearly all Yellow and Blue Instant CC Spells just not the AoE instant Stun
Yellow Spread Heal
Yellow slow Spec Heal
Blue fast Spec Heal
Blue Combat Speed Debuff
Yellow Pom
3. High Utilty Spec38 Pacification
33 Mending
19 Augmentation
High Utilily Spec, you get the first Cele with that spec and lose not that much. Some Pac Spells are lower, but you get the 33 slow Spec heal, good for saving mana. I would recommend that spec if you are trained on playing and often play with the same augis.
Yellow AoE Mezz
Yellow Root
Blue AoE Stun
All Yellow and Blue Instant CC Spells
Blue Spread Heal
Yellow slow Spec Heal
Blue fast Spec Heal
Blue Combat Speed Debuff
Yellow Pom
Green Cele
Green Speed
Aug Healers Spec:1.44 Augmentation
31 Mending
High Aug Spec. You get the red Cele and a yellow haste and still have good blue heals. For me that spec is only worth with a 3 healers setup, because the tanks will be often out of range for cele.
Red Cele
Yellow Haste
All Resists Yellow
Blue slow Spec Heal
Blue fast Spec Heal
Blue Spread Heal
Yellow Str/Con Selfbuff
Yellow Speed
Yellow Dmg Add
2.37 Augmentation
39 Mending
Good dual Spec. You get all resis yellow and have nearly all yellow heals, very good spec. It gets nearly everything you need. I would recommend that spec for nearly every RR and playstyle.
Yellow Cele
Blue Haste
All Resists Yellow
Yellow slow Spec Heal
Blue fast Spec Heal
Yellow Spread Heal
Blue Str/Con Selfbuff
Yellow Speed
Blue Dmg Add
3.36 Augmentation
40 Mending
Good dual Spec. A very good spec, too. You get the 100 % rezz but you missing then the yellow Energy Resis, the Sorc Mezz and AoE Mezz is energy.
Yellow Cele
Blue Haste
All Resists Yellow just not the energy Resis
Yellow slow Spec Heal
Blue fast Spec Heal
Yellow Spread Heal
Blue Str/Con Selfbuff
Yellow Speed
Blue Dmg Add
100% Rezz
Mend Healers Spec:1.42 Mending
33 Augmenation
High Mend Spec, Good spec for many high heals. But you should have some RR for mana RAs. You get a the yellow fast spec heal and the red slow spec heal and still have the yellow body resis. Very high heals, but you still have to stand free to heal like with blue heals and blue heals are most times enough for the dmg.
You can also go for 41 Mend then you get the blue str/con and yellow speed.
Yellow Cele
Blue Haste
All Resists Blue
Red slow Spec Heal
Yellow fast Spec Heal
Yellow Spread Heal
100% Rezz
Chapter Four: The Realm Abilty SpecialisationHealers have some really important RAs for themself and the group. These are only examples, RAs depending much on groups and playstyle. For some player Aug Dex is kind a waste or they don't need so much mana. At least DI, Purge, Mana is very important as a healer.
Aug Healer Spec:For RR5:Purge I
DI II
MCL I
Serenity III
PR I
For RR7:Purge I
DI II
MCL II
Serenity IV
PR I
For RR10:Purge I
DI II
MCL II
Serenity IV
PR I
BOF III
Also important
for faster healing
Aug dex III
for the chance to crit heal
Wild Healing I
Pac Healer Spec: For RR5:Purge I
DI I
MCL I
Serenity III
MoC I
Aug Dex III
For RR7:Purge III
Aug Dex III
Serenity III
DI I
MoC I
For RR10:Purge III
DI II
Serenity III
MoC II
Aug Dex
Also important
for more defense
BOF III
for more mana
serenity IV
for rezz
pr I
Chapter 5: EquipmentCheap SC:A healer SC is pretty easy, if you want to have a cheap one. It cost like 5 - 6p. You should have at least con,dex,piety,hits and all resist capped. Aug and Mend, too. If you don't have place for all linies, you can also switch items to cap aug when you are buffing.
Manapool should have also some points. Your Armor should have MHB as procs like your shield. Your hammer should have a dd proc and it should be a fast one so you can kill pets faster.
Somewhere on you armor, at the hands or feets for example, or on your twohandweapon should be a dd charge and a AF charge so you don't have to switch any item to use it. The dd charge should be on the armor, you don't have a instant by default so you have at least a instant dd with 1 min coledown.
Expensive:A Healer SC can be pretty expensive. You can cap Str and Quickness to kill pets faster and try to have charges on your jewellery so you have place for more MHBs. It can cost between 20p - 30p.
Addintional Equipment:You should have as special abilties:
MHBs on the armor and shield
DD Charge on the armor or 2hand
DD Proc on the hammer
AF Charge as Switch Item or on the armor
2 Mana instant Barrels
Sometimes useful
1 Endu instant Barrel
1 Endu overtime Barrel
dex/qui charge
pom charge or barrel as Aug Healer
Chapter Six: Controls There are many differents between how you can move and control your characater. Good Controls are kind of important for a good gameplay. Maybe you are able to play good with a slow control settting, but that means you will waste time in fights with moving which wouldn't be need with a better control setting.
There some important points to play faster
Face:With fast you can stand immediately after running. Without you have a little delay before stopping. So if you are running and need to cast:
click your target -> face -> spell
Mousemovement:First learn how to use it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG_k83Yiy1ATurn with the mouse is very important for healers, if you see a tank running to you have to run. If you turn then you char with the keyboard, it could be already to late.Other point is panning. Very important to get over view of the fight. If you just see what is up in the direction your running you may not administer the tanks behind you.
Basic Mousemovrd:For that learn to turn with the mouse and learn at least that three basics:
180 TurnTurn your char with the mouse for 180° and run.
180 Pan TurnTurn you view with the mouse for 180°
double 180 TurnTurn you char with the mouse for 180° and run and turn you view with the mouse for 180°. So you see what is going on behind you.
QbindsThere is nearly nothing what makes you faster then qbinds. With qbinds you can bind Actions to keys. That is important special on spell which need a target. So you can click a target, hit a key, click a other target, hit a key. Of course you should have standard commands like face on keys, too.
First learn how to use it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG_k83Yiy1AWhen I telling people to use qbinds they often tell me very many excuse why they don't need them or they cannot use them, because of that here some of the most named excuses:
Im fast enough if the mouse:
No you are not, the good thing on qbinds is that you can click a target, hit a key and go to the next target. Without qbinds you have to click a target move to the spell you want to click and have to move back to the next target.
All my keys have already actions around my movement keys:
Maybe they have, but you really think it is so important that you have send replay on "r" for you RvR Skills? Change your keyboard setting you need qbinds near to your movementkeys to get a uthgard world dominating healer.
I have everything on 1 - 10 and alt + 1 - 10
Yeah very cool, but there is a different between that and a qbind. If you have something on 9 or on alt+4 then on Q or on E. If you have it on 9. You probably have move your hand to hit that. Of course that is fast but not as fast as have it on key that is near. Same for alt+4 you have to kit two key.
So important spells on nearly keys like E,Q or 1,2,3,4,5,6 not so important spells on 7,8,9,0 alt+ combos.
Example for that:
For Healers you should have:
Aug Healer: small heal, big heal, spread heal, cure diease, cure mezz, mezz, single amnesie, AoE amnesie on qbinds
Pac Healer: small heal, big heal, spread heal, cure diease, cure mezz, mezz, AoE Mezz, Root, single Stun, single amnesie, AoE amnesie and all instant CC on qbinds
Many good players have like 20 Keys which they use to play, so they can look at the fight instead of searching the buttons on their screen.
Mouse Keyboard CombintionNearly the fastes way to play is to combin mouse and keyboard actions. Because you can hit much keys in a short time.
For that you can use mouse keys. Modern mouses have 2 up to 17 extra keys. You can put for example face on a mousekey.
With that like that you can select select + face with one hand nearly together and hit a key with the other hand.
Chapter Seven: InterfaceThe Interface should help a healer to play fast and well. For that you should have a custom ui because it make your access to the important information faster and it is easier to use.
Some important things:
You mostly select enemys at the middle of the screen and look at the middle of the screen, thats why all important thing should be near to the middle.
Like your groupwindow, your qbars, your targetbar, your health,endu,manabar
Your groupwindow should be big that you can easy see who have mezz or gets dmg
Your groupwindow should be big that you can easy select a groupmember
Your groupwindow should have a mouseover so you you can easy select a groupmember
You should have a compass, a compass that shows all directions that make it faster to see in which direction is what.
If you use Healer Healper make sure that they working corrcet. Some of them have a delay and that is very bad for healing.
A good UI is BobUI, it have many different options from many different UI.
http://bobsui.koamon.com/index.html7.1 ExampleFor example, my UI with a little description:
As I already said, the most time im look in middle of my Screen so thats why the importants things are near to the middle.
Like the
Target Bar, to see what i selected
Status Bar, to see my Health,Mana and Endu fast
Quickbar, to see fast what is up.
Groupwindow, big with Mouseover
Compass, which shows all directions
Clock, for a good timing
Conc window, with Conspool left in percent, so i can see after fight if some was sheared.
Chapter Eight: Healer BasicsPositioningA Healer is a caster, it need to be free to act. RvR is much about postioning, if you have a good positioning the enemys don't see you or they see you to late. If you park yourself in the middel of the battlefield you can be sure you will be one of the first targets. So try to stay away from your enemys when they
try to focus you and push in when they are busy. Use the side to that they don't recognise you before you have the chance to act. Try to stay away form melee dps. So you can turn and run when they face you, so they don't do dmg in the time you are running or they even don't engage you because the way would be to long to catch you.
HealingHealing is a kind of a special skill. You can do some things wrong.
Overhealing:Means you take to high heals and waste much mana because of that. If a groupmate takes 200 dmg all 2 sec and you heal all 2 sec for 500 hits you will overheal it and waste much mana you probably don't have them late in the fight. Of course it is better to overheal then to underheal a target, but both is not the best.
Underhealing:Means you take to low heals and have to waste special abiltys because of that. If a groupmate takes 500 dmg all 2 sec and you all 2 sec for 200 hits you will underheal it and waste much special aviltys like instant heals to keep your target up. So they will be missing later in the fight.
Way to heal:Correct healing should be effectiv and keep your target between 70% - 100 %. It is ok to overheal a little bit, better then to underheal it. To be able to do that you should have a little bit experience in healing.
The Heals:You have like 4 heals to heal.
small base heal - small mana cost - small hitpoints heal - short casttime
slow spec heal - small mana cost - middle hitpoints heal - long casttime
fast spec heal - high mana cost - high hitpoint heal - short casttime
spread heal - high mana coast - high hitpoint heal - middle casttime - spread the heal to the lowest groupmates
For a single target you should use single heals. You should choose the heals on the incoming dmg. The slow spec heal is good for one or two tanks.
The fast spec heal is good for 2 - 3 Tanks or more. Depends on which Abilites are running from you or your enemys like BoF or AoTG, which target gets dmg runenmaster or tank, how many groupmates can help like guardtank, spiritshell, buff shears.
So firstly you should make sure that the target survive, if you are not sure take a big heal.
Combination of heals:One of the best way to heal is to combinate heals. So take as first a big heal then a small one.
Spread Heal:Spread heal is very useful. It heals the lowest members of the group at first, but it need a lot of mana, so try to use single heals for a single target. Nearly more important on uthgard. You can heal diesased and ns target with a spread heal very good. That is because the spread heals has as target the healer whichis casting the spell. So you don't have to care about nearsight and diesae on your target. If the healer is diesased the heals get halfed like on a normal target.
Cure:Two very important spells for a healer. Cure diesase and cure mezz. You should communicate before and in fight who do it.
All should do it, but one should do it with high priority. In the fight it is important to communicate who is going to do what.
As exsample sometimes it happens then a target is dieased and two or three start cure diease while the target goes down.
To avoid that, the shaman can say - cure ppl - so the both healer can start heal immediately.
8.3 Groupsetup:Building a groupsetup means you make a order which class is on which slot. That means for example you have a group setup like this
healer(pac), Berserker, Berserker, Warrior, Shaman, Skald, Runenmaster, healer(aug)
and rebuild it to this
healer(pac), healer(aug), shaman, runenmaster, skald, Berserker, Berserker, Warrior
That can be usefull for a couple of things.
Firstly the RA Divin Intervention heals begins to heal the first slot and then go for the second and so on. That means again if you want to heal the 7 Slot and some members have also tp under 75%, DI will just heal all slot befor the the target that get the burst dmg.
With that group order, the targets that often get at are at then Top. For sure it doesn't work when the enemy group is attacking your tanks.
A other point is, you have a demezz order, the supporter are on top the det tanks are a the last slots.
All groupmember knows who is on which slot. If you are use to this and you here the runemaster in ts that he will get dmg soon. Even if a groupmate just get dmg and you see that in groupwindows, you don't have to read the name or the class, you just see which slot it is and you know which class it is.
There are only some point for my why that can be a disadvantages. You might have problem if the groupleader don't want to build a groupsetup, you play with a tank as stickleader so everybody hve to stick someone else then f1 or you make the stickleader f1 and build the grpsetup starting with the second slot.
A advantage and a disadvantage at the same time, if you want to stop fast as pac healer you can click on the second slot face and target then your self to heal, but if you have to play also sometimes aug healer you might target your self sometimes to face your self.
To be fast in building groupsetup you can do two macros:
/macro invite /invite %t
/macro disband /disband %t
With that two macros you can change the grp setup very fast:
If you have a group like:
Healer(pac), Shaman, Runemaster, Healer(aug), Berserker
disband/invite the Shaman
disband/invite the Runenmaster
disband/invite the Berserker
and you are ready.
Chapter Nine: The Aug Healer TacticsSo you are a Aug Healer now, fresh from Thidranki with a good Spec, good RAs and a good SC. You get a group invite and now the important part of your starts for you.
The RvR. Now we can communicate some generell things and start with Buffing.
Generell things are, the communcation server IP ( TS3, Vent ), if the stickleader can build a groupsetup and what enemys are out, to have a little bit knowlege about what is out and groupplay, all that points you can do while roaming, too. Talking about group means in that case, tell what do you need from the group like i explained it above.
Starting with buffing.
Different Pac Healers buff different. So you should communicate what you should buff or take a look at the group windows what the pac healer already buffed.
There are two main buff systen. The Aug Healer buffs the two main attributes and haste. That mean you buff for all
Berserkers, Skalds Str, Con, Haste
Warriors, Savages Str, Dex, Haste
Casters Dex, Con
Addintional some Pac Healers take Dex
and some Shamans dex or con or both
The Pac Healer should buff then the other bases, pom , af.
On the other main buff system the Aug Healer buffing str, dex and haste to all and the same buffs to the paci and the shaman.
For yourself you should buff dex,con and if possible haste and str. If you don't have enough con for that ask the pac for str.
Then you should also buff your self buffs. Buff yourself Str/Con and Speed and you dmgadd if you don't have a runemaster in group. Don't buff yourself your dmg shield. If you get an AT and the tanks get a root they can push our theirself of the root if they hit you.
After that buff resist to the group and you are ready to go out so stick the stickleader that it can see that you are ready.
Ok you are now in enemy territory. First thing you should do is destick or stop to stick the stickleader. Midgard have to 2 Healers and 2 Demezzer. Not like the other realms the healers and the demezzer are the same class. So if you get mezzed next to the paci and even if it is just a instant mezz it might be a bad start for your group or already the end of the run.
So to avoid that run yourself or stick a player how is sticked to the stick leader that you have a least a little bit range.
In the time you running around you can talk about the groupplay, you can do that like i said also at the start.
Mousepan while roaming and try to stay prepaired for inc. A Aug Healer which is on the Desktop at Inc reading the ban-Section can wipe his group.
Because you are stayed prepaired, you see the incoming early. So what to do now? The best is you get fast information about the inc so you can choose a tactic depending on that. Firstly try to get distance between the pac healer and you.
Then there are three main things you can do, while or better before you do that you should look at the inc and listen what the other tell you about the inc with that information you can choose or if the information comes later change your tactic fast.
Cele openingStand and do Cele. Many healer do that, but you should have inc from a far range for that.
Do it when you are on like 2500 Range to the other group. Else it could be that the paci stop, too because it want to mezz the enemys group. A problem is, when you run with skald speed, your tanks will be out of the cele range before you finished the cast. Don't forget to stop with faceing a other player. Look while that what the enemys are doing and take a good postion then depending on the inc.
Prekite openingMake a double 180 Turn and Run. Look at what the enemys are doing and take a good postion depending on the inc.
Amnesie openingStand and caste Amnesie on the enemys, so you drop the enemys speed and they cannot cast. It is a difficult tactic, because you should communicate that with the pac healer in your group before. Amnesie breaks mezz, so if you do it when the pac mezzed the other grp a sec before you cast is finished you will throw them out. You drop your speed with that, too. So not good against a hard push grp.
So after the opening, it about positioning. You main priority should be to stay free and keep your speed up. You are the main healer in that group so if you aren't free the second healer have to heal for you. In Midgard that second healer is also the main CCler, rupter and because of that a liked target of the enemys.
So better you stay free. Free means mostly keep distance between you and the enemys. That means look where the tanks are, look where the CCler are. Try to keep as much distance you can. How much that is depends again on the enemy group.
If it is a heavy tank group there is no need to stay near to you group. They will probably do point dmg. That means they take a target and assist. All you need to do is to keep 2000 Units between you and that target. Try to keep your speed up so you can run away from tanks and fast push in pull out for demezz or cele.
Against Hybrid groups. It is more difficult you might get also dmg in front.
So at that point it is important to communicate with the pac healer and your group. If the paci is able to heal the dmg or not.
That also need communication. Is the full AT of the enemy group going to you tanks, you should know that as early as it is possible, because you will be
probably out of range for heal.
Against kite group it is often better to just have a little bit smaller range between you and you front tanks and go a little bit more on the side.
You probably gets rooted and have to purge so you should have a little buffer with the range.
Against fully caster groups. You can even push with the tanks. All your group needs is rupt and CC. So stay with your group.
Cele is in many cases a postioning killer. Many people thing Cele is a most have in Midgard Tankgroups and make them strong.
Of course Cele is strong, but also a reason for many wipes. For Cele the Aug Healer have to change the positions form 2000 Range to the assist Target to 1000 Range to the own tanks in the front. That can be a distance like 2500 Units.
The problem on that is, that the main healer go in range of the enemy CCler, Pets, Supportes, Tanks, Nearsighter. Dangerous zone!
So you really should look if you have time for that or not and of course communicate that to your pac healer, which should be free for that. With a little bit practice you should be able to do that sometimes, but it is not a must have to win. It is more important that your group survive.
Between the times you have to heal you can do many other thing. First you can mezz the tanks which probably hitting a groupmate. You can do that while healing, too. You should just make sure that you groupmate survive that. Even if the Tank resist the mezz. If you even more time, you can mezz and stun enemys caster or support which stand offensive. One of the best tactic is to rupt them with amnesie from the back. Amensie have a 2300 Units range so you don't have to get in a offensive postion to use it. All that offensive spells kick you out of speed so make sure that you have a good positioning to do that and be all time prepaired to go to a defensive postion again. If you have a defens postion you have good overview, so tell the group what you see. What do the tanks, the supporters of the enemy group for example.
Tell your group what you need. The warrior, runenmaster, shaman and the pac healer should be make sure you are free, if you cannot rupt. Of course you can do much to aviod that, but against a charge Tank or maybe a stealther which is adding you need the help from other groupmembers.
That sounds all like a very defensive jobs and it is most of the time because the aug healer is the main healer. With a good communication between you and the pac healer, you will be able to do more cele in the front but that should be good coordinated.
After a lost fight, if you ask an Aug Healer why he didn't heal, they often tell that they had rupt. Ah, ok! No it is not, a aug healer doesn't have to have rupt, if he have a probably make a mistake, the group or it was just diffcult to avoid. Anyway often it is the aug healers fault. Normaly because of Cele.
The Top Aug Healers Execusens and what they meanI had rupt! ( because i charged in to drop cele ) That cannot have something to do with postioning, really no
I was splitting ( after i was back from desktop ) Yeah, because logging in to stick and go to facebook is more entertainment then only do one thing.
A tank charged me ( because i already had a bad positioning ) How could that tank really hit a healer that standing next to him, what a gimp
I didn't had mana to heal ( in the middle of the fight because i spread it already away ) To target a person is one action more then just spreading
I couldn't heal because there was no mezz on the tanks ( because im not able to find that mezz button ) That is anyway the job of the paci
I couldn't heal because the tanks were overextended ( because i was not pushing ) Funny how can they do that against a hib caster group
I was rupting a caster ( because im sick of doing my job ) Thats why some healer have offens class as twink
The Top things Aug Healers often hear and what they meansWhy was there no heal ( even i was overextended ) yeah, next time we will leave all our postions to hunt that single pre kiting caster
Why there was no cele ( against that hybrid alb group ) of course next time it would be better if the main healer push into the range of the sorc, caba, theurg rupt
Why there was you didn't heal me ( against that charge AT ) was maybe not so a good idea to try to nuke them down at the beginning of the fight
Why there was no heal ( against that 3 Tank AoTG AT ) was hard to see that little firbolg coming to you right ?
Chapter Ten: Pac Healer TacticsSo you are a Pac Healer now, fresh from Thidranki with a good Spec, good RAs and a good SC. You get a group invite and finally can take part of the 50er RvR.
Now we can communicate some generell things and start with Buffing.
Generell things are, the communcation server IP ( TS3, Vent ), if the stickleader can build a groupsetup and what enemys are out, to have a little bit knowlege about what is out and groupplay, all that points you can do while roaming, too. Talking about group means in that case, tell what do you need from the group like i explained it above. To see the different buffsystem look at the cheaper before Aug Healer. Normally a paci buffs the secondry attributs, pom ,af, str to supporter.
That means:
berserker,skalds dex
warrior,savage con
to all manaclasses pom
to all af
Now it is important if you going to be the stickleader or not, communcate that with the group. There some advantages and disadvantages about it. It is good to be the stickleader because the stickleader is often the leader of the group, so you can decide the tactic you are going for. You can run the ways you know. It is bad to be stickleader because you will be the first target for nearly every thing because you are an important class and the stickleader is easy to select. So you will be get nearsight, mezz, stun, assist train very fast. Many Paci runs theirself even it have that heavy disadvangtes, that because many player cannot really run tough. They often run on the road or just inc from a bad side. If you have a player that is able to run like a paci in the front, let him the slot as stickleader.
If not, take the lead. So all stick you, you remind all to check their necklace and to use af charges amd run out. So now a pac healer can use an important paci skill, running. In many zones are main routes which are used from many groups as road. In Emain for example there are really road and that are the mainroutes were the most group running on. That is for a Paci healer and specially as a uthgard world dominating healer
a bad idea, because you have many problems if you inc other group. The reason for that you can see later when you see your enemys.
So what to do? Run a the side of the mainroutes. Look for good path where you have a look at the mainroutes but a enemys group have problems to see you. Like mountains, if you run up to a mountain and down is the mainroute many enemys will see you very late. That gives your group time to splitt, choose targets and you have time and you have a better postion to inc. Maybe not to fight, but to inc. So you run now with your group in stick. If didn't do it already, speak with your group about tatics, enemys and communication. Then you have Inc, one of the excitings momentent as a paci.
OpeningThe next important paci skill the opening.
There are like many good way to open a fight as paci.
Fist of all for a good inc, you should have good running skills, so you don't get an frontinc.
AnalyzingThen you should fast analyse what you see, if you have time for that. If you don't have you need a fast opening.
What kind of group is it? Hib? Alb? Caster? Tank? Hybrid?
Did they already saw you? Where is the enemy CCler?
Do they run sticked or splitted?
Enemys CCA pac Healer have two main CCler enemys. The Sorc and the Bard.
A pac Healer should know what they can do and what they like to do, what advantages they have and what disadvantages they have.
The BardThe Hibernia main CCler. Really the bard don't have really much CC, it only have different types of mezzes, but he have a lot of instant rupt, too. Also he has the hightes speed and endu. So a bard can inc with speed6.
For the opening it have AoE Mezz, single instant Mezz, AoE instant Mezz, single instant Amnesia, AoE instant Amnesia.
Many Bards often go for 47 Music so the AoE Mezz have a 300 Units radius. The Bard have good utility for instant CC opening and cast opening because it can rupt the enemy CCler instant with amnesia instant CC while casting.
The SorcThe Albion main CCler. A Sorc have a lot of utiliy and even it is the only Main CCler without instant CC it have many advantages against the other CCler. It have a high cast speed. Not like the pac healer it get more dex while lvling and it can be a race with 80 startdex. A Sorc can have with AugDex 4 and yellow dex/qui 350 dex, 40 dex more then most pac healer have. Additonal to that it have a higher mezz range and a greater radius. 1875 range and 400 radius.
It also have other CC, it have Root and AoE Root. It doesn't end here it have a AoE Amnesie, single Amnesie, a yellow pet, dex/ui, dex, str, str/con debuff and a Mezz reduce buff. That make it really uneffectiv to instant mezz a sorc, mostly better to stun it instant and cast a single mezz.
Every MainCCler have advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the situations and how many instant spells are up everyone of them can be the best mainCCler.
The OptionsYou have the fast options, like standard things you can do, or you take the informations from the analyzing.
I will explain the options and the situation where they are good to use
I start with the most famous, most diffuclt, most overrated and in some situations not the best option.
The Inital Crowd Control.There are like 5 options for the inital CC, Cast and 4 Instant CCs.
The Stickleader lockdownA famous tactic for pacis. That tactic means you hit the Stickleader with the inital CC. That can be really power full.
In many groups everybody stick the stickleader and it is the only one who is running. So if he get CCed everybody behind it, just going for run nearly into the stickleader and then stand behind it with a short range. So it is enough to cast a AoE Mezz on the stickleader to have the whole group into a box mezz. If a player short stopped it need a short time that it can run with full speed again, that why that tactic can work pretty good.
Even if they see you short before you do the CC on the stickleader and cast a AoE Mezz it can be already to late to splitt.
That is really powerfull at side inc, because they don't see you a long time, works sometimes also at front inc if the group splitt slowly.
You can take every cast or instant CC for that. If there is a CC up, you can hit the stickleader with a dd charge, so it run instantly slower and don'T run out of range for the AoE Mezz. Work pretty good against groups they have their Main CCler as stickleader.
I would recommend to use the single instant stun for that. Because the effect is more difficult to see for the other
player in the group and it isn't displayed in the groupwindow. The negativ effect is that a bard can purge and have then two immunity timer, but the bard can be rupted then with amnesia.
Good positioning for to do that are sideincs, for that you should try to hit the group from a 90° - 160° angle in the side. Best is like 120° - 140°. Many Stickleader don't use mousepan very much, so then don't see something what is in a 90° angle to them. Some just look a little bit left and right.
So if you come from a 120° - 140° you can hit some of then even if they mouse pan. That required Speed 6. With lower speed you need to start from like 70° running to them that you are at like 90° when you are finally in range.
That sound really good, but it have some disandvantages. Many Albgroups run with a Offtank as Stickleader. The problem is here only if the group react slowly you will have some in mezz. It is enough when the Sorc is fast, it will be able to mezz because it is free when you hit the stickleader, it cast faster and have a higher range on the AoE Mezz. You might have problem then to see that if the stickleader is a Half-Oger. In front inc, it means also you drop your speed really near to the enemy group. If the Tanks have Speed6 up you will be get slammed really fast.
Against fast goodgroup, the tactic isn't really usefull. They will see you before you are in range and splitt. They run normaly with not all sticked to one groupmate and have a tank running at the front. Against them we need some other tactics.
The Main CCler lockdownThat is a diffuclt tactic. Means just hit the main CCler of the enemy group. That have many advantages. Your group will not getting mezzed, you can mezz their
supportes and the CCler will mabye purge, so after a mintues fight you can remezz it and it will stand the whole duration.
That tactic is akin to the Stickleader lockdown tactic. It have also some disadvantges. You will drop your speed in front of the enemy tanks.
It is sometimes not easy to see who is the main ccler, when it is not the stickleader. Alb groups run often with a Merc Half-Oger so you have problem to see the the Sorc. It is nearly requited that you have Speed6, If you see the a Albgroup, run to it the Sorc will already start casting when you are on 1875 Range that mean you should find the Sorc, target it and run in that time the left range for 1500 to the Sorc and hit a instant CC. Many Sorcs have like 350 dex or more, so you only have like 1,5 sec for that. Sounds difficult and it is against good sorcs, specially when you only have Speed5.
The Instant AoESounds easy, but it isn't. Opening the fight with a AoE instant can be really powerful and can be also really bad. You have two AoE instants Mezz and Stun.
In many cases the AoE Stun ist bad. It just hold the enemy supportes like 5 seconds and the enemy tanks lile 1 or 2. After that all tanks have slam immunity at the beginning so they will maybe save charge for later. Good is that opening against Caster groups with just one tank. They will stay like 5 seconds and cannot prekite and after that you can remezz them. That can win the fight in the first second.
So better opening with AoE instant mezz against the most groups. That can have a really good effect. If you are able to get like 4 or 5 in mezz you group will have a time to take targets and postions. You can also hit the Tanks with is and it isn't so bad. They drop out of speed and you grp have time to postion, but the enemy tanks will have mezz immunity. To get a good mezz against good groups are possbile if they don't splitt to fast, even if the sorc start fast mezzing, you can be faster with that.
Sounds good and easy, but well like i said it isn't. Firstly you have the same problems like with all Inital CC, you drop your speed. If you hit the support with it you will drop it right next to the enemy tanks. If you hit the tanks, the Sorc will probably able to mezz. Against hibgroups a good mezz against a fast bard isn't really possible. Why? There is a different between you AoE instant Mezz and the AoE instant Mezz of the Bard Many bards have the the red AoE instant Mezz a pac healer the yellow one. The yellow one have 150 units radius the red one 300 units radius.
That can be a big problem, if you heading a hibgroup and want to AoE instant mezz them you have to target a enemy in the group not the stickleader.
If you hit the stickleader only the stickleader will stand in mezz because the range between the stickleader and his group is like 150 or more. Ok that means you have to target one in the sticked crowd. That can be also a problem. If a firebolg runs in front it is not easy to select fast one behind it. If the Bard runs in front and he is fast you will be in mezz. The Bard have a 300 Units radius AoE instan Mezz so for the bard it is enough to target the stickeleader and AoE instant mezz the group behind the stickleader will be also in Mezz. So works only well if you are fast and the enemy group don't react fast.
Amnesie openingWhat do against good groups? For that we need other openings. One of it is Amnesie opening. Just stand on like clipping range and AoE Amnesie the enemys. They will drop out of speed and the supporter cannot cast. You will have decent distance to them so you can have time to take a good postioning.
Prekite openingA other good option. If you group can splitt there isn't really a need to mezz at the beginning. Just splitt up and get a good postion and look what the enemys are doing.
That are the main-options you have. Many Player overrate the inital CC. It isn't that important many player think, if your group splitt fast. You will have time at the inc and can mezz the tanks or the supporters which are more dangerous then the beginning. As example at alb groups, you are able to mezz 4 of them, but the Sorc standing very far behind. So it will demezz them in like 4 secs. So it could more powerful when your Tanks already keep one supporter busy with healing and the skald is rupting the Sorc.
So it requited a bit skill to do a opening and not lesser to do a good one, but often you have only short time at the beginning of the fight, so sometimes it is better to do just something, throw a AoE instant Mezz in the other group and take a good postion. It very rare that you even have the chance to mezz a group that good that you win the fight with that, at least against group which have some player they are ingame while running.
Back to the situation in Emain.
So you decide to make AoE instant Mezz and turn to the right to get a good postion. So what now?
The diffcult thing on pac healer play is you have a very offense job and a very defense job. To combine that the right why is on of the diffcult things.
If you know you Aug Healer isn't that good at healing you should firstly stay back and avoid to get dmg, just make a AoE Mezz at the begnning maybe and then help heal.
If you know your Aug Healer is very good player, that can easily handle a 3 Tank AoTG AT with a rupter pushing also up, you can go offense very soon.
That depends of course of the whole group. If the shaman is unable to find his root in fight, the aug healer will having problem to stay free in fight, even if the augi know how to postion.
The Defense playA pac healer should help often in the back. Not only when the augi isn't unable to there are a lot things you can do from the defense.
Firstly the heal job helping the aug healer from time to time is needed. Then the tanks can be CCed. That can be sometimes dangerous. As Paci you have sometimes to options. Heal or CC. If the Tanks then have immunity or resist you groupmate is probably down. So combinate it, one or two big heals, then a AoE Mezz or fast paci can also fast single mezz them.
From the back the paci can rupt with amensia very good and CC upcoming caster and supporter.
From the defense play you have a really good overview over the fight. With that overview you can take a good postion and wait for the right moment to go for the offense play.
The Offense playThere you can see how powerful a healer can cc and rupt. Your targets in the front the enemys mainccler, the supportes, the caster, the guarder. It is not easy to say what a pac healer should do first at the offense play, but there are some system they often played.
On if it to force player to use their utility. If it is a normal inc, many of the support have purge up and no mezz immunity.
So first the paci should look for the enemy main ccler, because it is often the only demezzer in group, and try to single mezz him.
So the bard for example is mezzed now, that is the time to look for the druis. Try to mezz them both. The bard will probably purge in that situation so try to look at the bard while mezzing the drui and stun him. The druis will stand in mezz and will have to purge, if they purge stun them. Try to mezz the guarder also with a single mezz.
If you you can also root them, that is really powerfull in a kite group. So enough for now, you can go back to support your group.
You won't be able probably to do that in that order, but at least you maybe were able to bring some fever in the enemy group, so they had to use some instant or RAs like Purge, DI, BOF.
Time for wait that they lose their immunity against mezz, stun, root, do the defense job while that or rupt them with amnesia.
So after a minutes, they all have lost their immunitys. Time to push in range of them and try to do the same again. Maybe the now you will get a drui and bard in mezz the other you can rupt. So that could be already the end of the run for the enemy group.
That sounds easy, but like often it isn't. It is just theory but it show what a pac healer can do for example when it plays offensive.
A main part of the offense play should be to get the targets of you group underhealed. So rupt and CC the supportes, for that the main ccler and demezzer should be busy. CC the guarder and take care of every thing that can be dangerous for your grp, rupt and cc the petspammer and nearsighter.
I wrote often about single mezz. It is often better then just use AoE Mezz, depends on how much time you have. If your grp standing well try to single CC.
If the situation is a little busy use AoE Mezz. Cleri and Druis really like to clump somehow, so AoE Mezz can be enough.
Chapter Eleven: TrainingThe best training to get better is of course to do RvR, but there some ways you can train pac healer skills without fighting
Selecting in emainSometimes when your run in emain there are many groups out of your own realm. You cannot engage them, but while past them you can train to select targets at inc.
You can train to click the stickleader on inc as example or maybe on of the healers.
Training against mobsYou can train that against mobs. That is very good to get used to new controls and train to select and cast.
You can train for example the rountine for a inital CC just to get used to it.
The routine for that is often run to it, select it, fire on max range some to look down, face, cast AoE Mezz.
Other thing that is worth to train against mob is select and cast. Take like 5 and select them and cast a single CC on them without losing a second and to don't overhit a cast. Many Player in DAoC like to overhit style or cast. Then you do like 2 times a single Mezz on a target. Often a waste on time. So it is worth to train selecting a cast like 5 enemy after each other. If you are done with that start form the other direction you stopped with a different CC.
You can also train a little bit kite against mobs. Hit and Move without overhitting cast or get hitted. CC on Mobs get reducted when they get it mutipletimes so after some cast it they only stand for some seconds. Good for training movement.
DistanceYou should be able to assume distances in units. Especially the important 3 ranges. 1000 Units ( Cele Range ) 1500 Units ( CC Range ) and 2000 Units ( Heal Range ).
To train that a little bit you can use /groundset <units>. You will see your groundtarget then on that range.
You can use that even in fight.
The Top of the Excusen of a Pac Healer and what they meanI couldn't heal i was mezzing ( and i think it is my job anyway ) maybe it would be better with 47 pac and a other group
I couldn't mezz at the Inc I had lag ( because the flames in IRC were more important ) oh yeah, many grp get mezzed because of that
I couldn't mezz at the Inc I couldn't target the bard ( because the other CCler was faster ) There is nearly no point to say that the other was just faster!
I tried to mezz the tanks ( i just didn't regonise that they have immunity ) To know when who have immunity is a important skill of a Pac Healer
The Top of what Paci have to hear and what it meansWhy there no mezz at beginning ( at the front inc againt that Alb Tank group ) Yeah, i like to get slamed, trained and petted after 2 seconds of fight
Why there was no mezz on the support ( even the tanks not assisting ) There was, but you didn't see it because of some player running anytimer spamming circles around them
Why there was no heal ( on the no pre kitting runi ) I didn't except that the runi want to hug the AoTG Merc train at the very beginning of the fight
Why we find no inc ( even the other wiping at the moment ) Maybe, I don't like to inced from 4 directions at the AMG at the same time
Changelog
10.08.2011 published
10.08.2011 Index and headline highlighting
12.08.2011 Formating
12.08.2011 Added Missing +Aug on Items, 2hand dd charge
12.08.2011 Pac Spec Comments
15.08.2011 Some little editing Introduction
15.08.2011 Aug Spec Comments
15.08.2011 Formating
18.08.2011 Training Part
27.12.2011 Interface Screenshot and Description
27.12.2011 Groupsetup