Fury:
Etheecx -Necrow R5
Ebedokles -Priest of Agrigento [threw himself into the volcano!]
Teargarden -Sin R8
Teagarden -Ranger R7
Tempgarden - DeaTea R8
Teadealer -ToS R3
Crom:
Ethicx -Demonologist R10
Bedtime -Guardian R5
SponsoredHox R3 delight
*Chaotic gooD*
The thing to be aware of when playing pom/tos is that blue and big heals dosen't land on the group from distance, so even these ranged healers can do damage from afar then they need to be close to the group to provide good healing. At the same time they do a lot more damage up close as you can fit short range spells into rotation.
Try not to cast blue/green heals more often than for keeping them up always. It will drain mana to spam them too often. Healing only is not enough, apply as much damage in between heals as possible with mana management in mind. (you still need enough to heal). For tos, I can recommend feating blood mana.
Cheers
Thank you, Sifie!
I read that in many cases it's good for the healer to either stand behind the tank or directly behind the boss, basically facing the tank then. That's what I adviced her to do.
Doesn't moving in and out of range drop the dps a lot?
Careful with that tactic ; some bosses do AoE and/or cone damage at close range. I would, instead, ask her to be more mobile. IE; the blue-heal has a visible ring that allows a player to see the effects of its "Heal over Time". No need to stay directly in harms way. As you know; the green heal can have its effects felt from almost anywhere.
... and NO; moving in and out of range does not drop DPS.
I would caution her to be proactive in larger groups as well. For instance, some new Raid Leads don't understand that sticking x3 ToS in one group gimps the whole Raid. The healers end up canceling-out each other's heal effects. Thus, wasting efforts and casting time of those players. A good healer watches what groups they get put in and the buffs gained from others. A good healer is vocal too. Ensuring those in your group understand if you're having problems reaching other players, etc.
Last edited by Reinauer; 12th January 2015 at 11:48.
RE: moving out of range decreasing DPS - it depends how far you move away from the NPCs.
A lot of ToS dps comes from self-centred AoE spells (eg Storm Field) and too far away will mean the pulsing spell damage will not hit the targets. Ditto for Demo if you use wave of flames alot for dps.
BUT it's just a matter of learning how far is too far - other than running around with the AoEs' activated and seeing when you aggro an npc to you...another way to figure this out is by using the straw dummies that are in guild cities or brought from Veteran Rewards Vendors and having a combat damage window open - that way you can see when the straw dummy registers your spells and get a good idea of distances - eg when spell says "damage on up to 6 enemies within 4 metres" for example...how far away that is in the game.
You said your GF is not new to healing in games, so I'm not going over the basics of that. One thing she might not have picked up on yet is that her "big" heal (vitalizing jolt I think it is on a ToS) which has a one minute cooldown on anyone that has had it cast on them, has a casting cooldown itself of about 25 seconds - which means if the group/raid is not bunched up together, she will be able to cast the big heal on a different batch of players even if it is debuffed on herself. This does become relevant in groups and raids where someone might be kiting an NPC away from the rest of the group and needs a big heal cast whilst is debuffed on her or they were ported somewhere and missed the heal when it was cast.
Lastly, I would advise learning to play with a couple of things onscreen at all times as it will help with watching for casts and also debuffs active on your group members (especially heals on cooldown on tanks) later in game and whether or not you have pulled aggro yourself:
1) Cast bars up on screen all the time - whilst they will come up when you or an NPC casts something, I have found it is much easier to have them on screen at all times in an easy to see place so I don't miss a cast that I have to react to quickly
2) Current Target's Target - again to help with who the NPC has targetted when they are making the cast/combo - some NPCs change target for a couple of seconds to cast a debuff that has to be reacted to quickly and then switch back to the main aggro holder.
3) And there is another - I think it's called Target's Target Portrait - which will show the names and debuffs active of the aggro holder of the NPC you have targeted. this is very helpful with figuring out if a big heal is active on your tank, and also if aggro has jumped off the tank to someone else, or in locating which NPC you are meant to be killing first if you have been given instructions to kill Person's A NPC 1st. I also use it to decide which NPC to fight - the fastest way for ToS/Demo/assassin to die in raids is to focus on fighting an NPC that is not being tanked....so I figure out who the tanks are and target NPCS that are aggro'd against them rather than take on NPCS that have jumped aggro from tank to DPS....of course in some cases the game mechanics or groups will need you to DPS down a non-'tank'ed enemy first so Target's target portrait I find is an easy way to locate the NPC I should be killing first.
Thanks for all the useful information!
We'll try that out.
I've always played with the cast bars always on (would be impossible to interrupt the right spells otherwise).
Also the target of target is on.
Will check out the target's target portrait. Never used that before.
As a healer doing six mans I like to have my team list on detailed, I can then see buffs, debuffs and heals on everyone in my group collectively, some fights with lots of movement its very helpful to know that half my group is debuffed and half can still take a big if they get in trouble, who got missed by steadfast, who has a ruin or bomb...ect
That a demo has other tools at his disposal that allow her to do decent DPS from range does not change the fact that waves of Flame is by far the most powerful DPS spell in her arsenal. So any demo who knows what she is doing will try to get within 8 meters of her target when possible.