Melee/Heals Human Fvs Feats?

[nauziem]

Trying to get a definitive list of the feats I want before progressing my character too far.

My character: Melee(longswords)/Heals
Human Lawful/Good
STR: 17
DEX: 15
CON: 14
INT: 8
WIS: 9
CHA: 12

Feats I'm pretty sure on:
Toughness
Empower Heal
Quicken
TWF
ITWF
GTWF (This one gets a boost from aesthetics -- though normally considered optional, I want this)

Other feats (Pick 2)
Extend
Maximise Spell
OTWF
Improved Crit

Struggling to work out which feats from the latter category I would be happiest with. IC + extend? From a perspective of where I want this character to go... I want it to be a very capable healer, but I don't want it to be swinging at air when it tries to melee in high level content.

[Impatiens]

If you plan on going with Min II weapons for most of your purposes IC is unnecessary so take that into consideration when deciding. If you won't be using Min II IC is a solid choice. OTWF won't really be needed late game, though it's nice early on. Extend is nicer early on than later, but it's still nice for short duration buffs like Divine Power and for extended blade barriers. Have you considered Empower? FVS get enhancements that help reduce the spell point cost of empower thus making it much more efficient than maximize. I have both maximize and empower on my FVS (though I moistly just turn Maximize on for blade barriers), but don't have Empower Healing. I find that 99% of the time Heal heals for more than enough without being empowered and regular empower works on cures.

[sirgog]

If you plan on going with Min II weapons for most of your purposes IC is unnecessary so take that into consideration when deciding. If you won't be using Min II IC is a solid choice. OTWF won't really be needed late game, though it's nice early on. Extend is nicer early on than later, but it's still nice for short duration buffs like Divine Power and for extended blade barriers. Have you considered Empower? FVS get enhancements that help reduce the spell point cost of empower thus making it much more efficient than maximize. I have both maximize and empower on my FVS (though I moistly just turn Maximize on for blade barriers), but don't have Empower Healing. I find that 99% of the time Heal heals for more than enough without being empowered and regular empower works on cures.

OTWF is quite important for Epics (although unimportant in pre-Epic content), and the fact Empower Spell doesn't work on Mass Heal really hurts it at endgame.

Empower Healing is pretty much required if you ever want to soloheal Elite Shroud without mana pots, for instance, unless you are in a group with lots of people with significant healing amplification (not just the standard 20% most fleshies have).

[Matuse]

Solo heal elite shroud is an excessively narrow reason to blow a feat on something.

Since running it on elite has no bearing on the amount of ingredients you get, how often is this even done with ANY number of healers? Not very.

[Impatiens]

OTWF is quite important for Epics (although unimportant in pre-Epic content), and the fact Empower Spell doesn't work on Mass Heal really hurts it at endgame.

Empower Healing is pretty much required if you ever want to soloheal Elite Shroud without mana pots, for instance, unless you are in a group with lots of people with significant healing amplification (not just the standard 20% most fleshies have).

I kind of assume that FVS will not tend to be meleeing in epic content and will be more likely to spend their time healing. Yes, if you will be meleeing in epic content OTWF is still worth keeping.

Maybe you need to have empower spell to solo heal elite shroud, but as I said...99% of the time it's unnecessary ;)

[nauziem]

Very interesting. Thanks so much for the replies.

So it would seem IC is an easy one to wipe out. The remaining decision I will need to give some thought. As Empower Heal works on Mass Heal... would it be fair to say that Emp. Heal is more versatile for the purposes of healing, and Emp. Spell is versatile in that it can be used offensively and defensively?
(If so, I might lean towards Emp. Heal as offensive casting is at the bottom of my priority list currently)

Extend, while I could see would probably not be in a build built for raw power, does certainly have it's advantages in that it means you don't spend all your time buffing and rebuffing the short-duration spells.

I guess the question is: Can a Fvs be a highly capable healer with just one of Empowered Heal, Empowered Spell, Maximize? (I don't want my healing ability to be "can help the cleric if necessary")

[Xithos]

For your chosen race and level distribution I would go with:

Empower Heal
Extend
Maximize
Quicken
Toughness
TWF
ITWF
GTWF

Some thoughts: Oversized Two-weapon fighting would be a nice thing to have but since you don't have Power Attack further lowering your + to hit you can probably squeeze by without it depending on gear. Improved critical is really nice if you are looking for extra dps against lots of trash mobs (think dual lightning strikes) or Velah where there are better choices than a Mineral II, but you will have to start seriously compromising your ability to heal trying to work that in. Empowered Healing sounds like it would be good for you if you plan on using mass Heal primarily (I use it on my healbot FvS and cleric) and since offensive casting did not look like a primary focus you shouldn't miss having empower once you are capped.

[Matuse]

With topped out FvS Improved Empower enhancements, and the Skiver, Empower costs a paltry 7 extra SP. I run Extend, Quicken, and Empower basically 24/7 now, and with a Superior Potency VI weapon, and Empower, I find that Mass Cure Moderate is quite nice. Combining 6% heal crit chance of life magic with the 9% crit chance of the skiver, that's 15% which is calculated separately per person when casting mass cures and mass heals. It's pretty rare that a toss a Mass Heal without at least one or two people catching a crit off it.

I don't see the need for Empower Healing at all.