Cleric Healing Guide

[Valezra]

PREFACE
This guide is designed to help clerics improve their ability to Heal, particularly in challenging end-game content and raids. This guide involves the recommendation of a heavy use of scrolls. Now, before you light the torches to flame the guide please take note that this guide is designed to help new clerics experiencing end-game raids for the first time and for experienced clerics getting ready to tackle Elite raids. Given enough practice and experience the ultimate goal is to reduce your consumables down to only the absolute amount necessary to see your party through a successful completion. For most raids on Normal the experienced and skilled cleric will use little to no consumables (ie - Scrolls and Mnemonic Potions).

This guide is based on two styles of healing of which I am familiar with. There will always be variations on these styles and I will attempt to present some of these variations in this guide. I will not be covering cleric melee or cleric offensive casting... I will only say that I recommend that ALL cleric builds be able to melee to an extent and be able to provide offensive casting.

PREPARATION
In any end-game quest or raid the Cleric should be properly prepared. Although the entire party shares responsibility for mitigating damage via proper Armor Class, Hitpoints, Fortification, and Buffs, the Cleric is still expected to keep the party members alive when things start getting rough. And in order to do this they will need to make sure their backpack is properly equipped.

The Cleric's Checklist:
1. Casting components for each level of spell you can cast.
2. A stack of Heal Scrolls.
3. A stack of Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass Scrolls.
4. Potency or Devotion item (more on this later)

People tend to like to design clerics in one of two fashions. The first being a pure Cleric with an emphasis on Wisdom score and SP. The second being a mostly Cleric build with a splash of some melee character level(s) to improve combat.

Basics for all Clerics:
1. Be sure to take maximum enhancement ranks in Cleric Life Magic to enhance all healing by 40%.
2. Take some or all spellpoint enhancements to pump up your SP pool.
3. Take some or all Wand and Scroll Mastery Enhancements (this is a place where many clerics may disagree but if you have the AP I would get as many ranks as you can)
4. Prayer of Life (critical heal improvement) enhancement to increase your crit chance is highly recommended.

EMPOWERED HEALING CLERIC
The first healing style we'll cover will be the Empowered Healing Cleric.

The cures of the Empower Healing Cleric with no metamagic feats will be fairly small. A typical setup includes using a Superior Potency VI item and casting Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass and Cure Light Wounds, Mass along with Heals. A variation on this may be using Superior Ardor VIII Clickies and using Cure Critical Wounds, Mass. Whichever spell ends up being your highest we will refer to that as your "Primary Mass Cure", and each subsequent mass cure as "Secondary", etc.

Healing large amounts of grouped-up players:
This typically occurs in the Shroud, and Epic DQ but can be found in other raids as well. The healing chain below is designed to save as much SP as possible for Elite/Epic Raids. Also note, the term "topping off" is referring to when mobs or the boss is still alive and attacking your party. There is no need to top off the party once all the opponents in a given encounter are dead. Either let them top themselves off, stay as they are, or top them off if you know your coming up to a shrine and you have SP to spare. UPDATE 5 ADDITION: If you spec for Holy Aura then "topping off" the party should be a no-brainer. Save the SP and let them bask in your Aura's glory. Below is the highest efficiency healing chain for this situation:

1. Avoid topping off the party with your SP. There will be a waste of SP if you do and efficiency is the name of the game when healing these situations. Instead use your Cure Mod Mass scrolls to top off the group if you must.
2. When two or more party members get between 50% to 75% health cast your Primary Mass Cure. If two or more players are still not 100% feel free to use a Mass Mod Scroll to top the group off.
3. Occasionally the group will take several big hits and several party members will be put below 50%. In this situation you want to cast your Primary Mass Cure immediately followed by your Secondary Mass Cure which is usually followed by a Mass Mod Scroll if they are not 100%.

Final tip for saving SP: Don't be afraid to abuse the Scrolls. Scrolls are cheap but Mnemonic Potions are not. Often I will start healing with Cure Mod Scrolls if I feel their DPS is low and the fight will go long. If the party is at 80%-90% health I will often let them sit like that till my Scroll Cooldown timer comes back around and I will hit them with another Scroll. Let the party cook a bit. Letting them get down to even 50% isn't a big deal because tip #3 above can boost them right back up.

Healing random major damage:
This occurs mostly in quests and raids and wherever party members are not grouped-up tightly. Abbot being a location where this can be really tested to the limit. This situation takes form as one or two group members at a time being hit hard and reduced to 25% or less hitpoints. The healing chain below is designed to save as much SP as possible for Elite/Epic Raids.

1. Lead with a scroll. Heal the lowest hitpoint party member with a Heal Scroll first. There are two reasons for this. The first reason, is that by the time you hit the lowest guy the other healer in the party may already have hit the other guy or two and you saved 100% SP. The second reason, is that often a Heal Scroll (with wand and scroll enhancements) will bring them to 100% health and avoid the need for follow-up curing.
2. Avoid Mass Cure spells unless you absolutely know they are grouped together. Often you will only heal one person and not very well requiring a follow-up Heal or Heal Scroll thus wasting SP.
3. Stick with Heal and Heal Scrolls in this situation. Also, if it's a fighter or someone you know has a lot of hitpoints and they got knocked down to around 50% you may want to let them cook until your scroll cooldown timer is up and then hit them with a Scroll.

Final comments on creating a superior Empowered Healing Cleric:
In case you haven't noticed by now efficiency is the name of the game. The very best Empowered Healing Clerics heal by maximizing what they get out of every SP. The two best ways to achieve this is to maximize your Critical Healing chance and to use Empower Healing. Below is a breakdown of how to maximize both features:

A. Crit Healing:
- Take all the Prayer of Life enhancements to get 9% crit chance.
- Avoid taking more than one Incredible Prayer of Life enhancement as this will waste Action Points and make your healing too potent thus resulting in inefficient overhealing.
- Acquire a Greater or Superior Healing Lore item to add another 9% crit chance, bringing your total crit chance to 18%. My favorite way to do this is to put Greater Healing Lore on Teir II of one of my GS items.

B. Empower Healing:
- Invest heavily in the enhancements to reduce the SP cost of empower healing to 6 SP.
- Acquire Lorrik's Necklace from the Hound of Xoriat Raid to further reduce the cost of Empower Healing by 2 SP for a total metamagic cost of only 4 SP.
- Use Empower Healing when healing large amounts of grouped-up players.
- Turn off Empower Healing when healing random major damage since you will be casting overpowered Heal spells and wasting SP (though 4 SP more isn't much and some WF could use the extra oomph)


MAXIMIZE CLERIC
The Maximize Cleric is typically more oriented to DPS, has less Spellpoints, and often is lacking enough feats to acquire Empower Healing. Due to most Maximize Clerics splashing other class levels their cure and heal spells are further reduced in power. Most battle clerics do have the Maximize metamagic feat to pump up the damage on their Blade Barriers, and I will teach you how to use this to heal as efficiently as possible.

Again, be sure to have the proper potency item and Primary Mass Cure spell and Secondary Mass Cure spell all set up similar to the Empowered Healing Cleric.

Healing large amounts of grouped-up players:
This typically occurs in the Shroud and Epic DQ but can be found in other raids as well. The healing chain below is designed to save as much SP as possible for Elite/Epic Raids.

1. Avoid topping off the party with your SP. There will be a waste of SP if you do and efficiency is the name of the game when healing these situations. Instead use your Cure Mod Mass scrolls to top off the group. <same as a pure cleric>
2. Turn on Maximize. Some healers may not like this statement; mathematically it is more efficient but requires more skill.
3. Whereas the pure cleric waits till party members are between 50% and 75% to cast their first mass cure you really want to wait until two or more party members are right at or just below 50% health since one Maximized Primary Mass Cure will usually bring them back to 90%+ health. Remember the goal is to never top the group off with your SP.
4. Occasionally the group will take several big hits and several party members will be put below 50%. Maximized curing is perfect for these events and often requires no change in strategy. You may find yourself occasionally following up a Primary Mass Cure with a Secondary Mass Cure but you'll be surprised how little this happens.
5. This is the tricky part. Instead of spamming Mass Cure Mod Scrolls you will most likely be using Heal Scrolls. Often you will find that one or two members are taking significantly more damage than anyone else. You can keep switching targets between them and using Heal scrolls in lieu of wasting SP on Maximized Mass Cures for just those two guys getting wailed on. If your backup cleric is worth a darn he will hopefully be using Heal spells or scrolls as well to help with those couple targets. Always remember to return to your main Mass Cure target (the guy that won't run away from the group just because he gets a little low on health).

Healing random major damage:
This occurs mostly in quests and raids and wherever party members are not grouped-up tightly. Abbot being a location where this can be really tested to the limit. This situation takes form as one or two group members at a time being hit hard and reduced to 25% or less hitpoints. The healing chain below is designed to save as much SP as possible for Elite Raids.

1. Lead with a scroll. Heal the lowest hitpoint party member with a Heal Scroll first. There are two reasons for this. The first reason, is that by the time you hit the lowest guy the other healer in the party may already have hit the other guy or two and you saved 100% SP. The second reason, is that often a Heal Scroll (with wand and scroll enhancements) will bring them to 100% health and avoid the need for follow-up curing. <same as empowered healing cleric>
2. Avoid Mass Cure spells unless you absolutely know they are grouped together. Often you will only heal one person and not very well requiring a follow-up Heal or Heal Scroll thus wasting SP. Maximized healing works more effectively for the Maximize Cleric in these situations than the Empowered Healing Cleric but requires a quick eye and situational awareness to ensure they are indeed within Mass Cure range of each other.
3. Stick with Heal and Heal Scrolls in this situation. Also, if it's a barbarian or someone you know has a lot of hitpoints and they got knocked down to around 50% you may want to let them cook until your scroll cooldown timer is up and then hit them with a Scroll. <same as empowered healing cleric>

Final comments on creating a superior healing Maximize Cleric:
Just like the Pure Cleric you want to maximize and squeeze out every ounce of efficiency from each SP. The two best ways to achieve this is to maximize your Critical Healing chance and to reduce the cost of the Maximize Metamagic Feat. Below is a breakdown of how to maximize both features:

A. Crit Healing:
- Take all the Prayer of Life enhancements to get 9% crit chance.
- Avoid taking ANY Incredible Prayer of Life enhancement as this will waste Action Points and make your healing too potent thus resulting in inefficient overhealing. This is especially true for the Battle Cleric using the Maximize metamagic feat.
- Acquire a Greater or Superior Healing Lore item to add another 9% crit chance, bringing your total crit chance to 18%. (again, Greensteel is a great place to get this)

B. Maximize (metamagic) Healing:
- Acquire an improved Maximize item. The Gloves of the Glacier from the Vision of Destruction Raid is a great choice for this.
- You will almost never turn off Maximize as a Maximize Cleric.

Closing Comments:
The Empowered Healing Cleric will always heal more efficiently and for a longer amount of time than the Maximize Cleric but a well played Maximize Cleric build should be able to heal through any of the games content.


MAXIMIZE VS EMPOWER HEALING COMPARISON CHART
Tip for using this chart: The percentages presented are for vertical comparison only and not horizontal. Example: NO METAMAGIC - Cure Mass Light gets 5% bonus per SP when using a Sup Potency item but only 3.33% per SP bonus on Cure Mass Crit. That does not mean Cure Light will cure more hitpoints. The reason for this is Cure Mass Critical has a higher base. Base has been normalized (uniformly brought to a value of 1) which allows use of the chart regardless of how many cleric levels you have. Given the same Potency Critical will always heal more efficiently than Serious, and Serious more efficiently than Moderate, and Moderate more efficiently than Light.

This chart displays the effect of Potency Items and Metamagic Feats on the base value of the Various Spells. Do not compare horizontally.

NO METAMAGIC - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				30		35		40		45
Reg. Potency		20%		4.00%		3.43%		3.00%		2.67%
Improved Pot.		30%		4.33%		3.71%		3.25%		2.89%
Greater Potency	 	40%		4.67%		4.00%		3.50%		3.11%
Superior Pot.		50%		5.00%		4.29%		3.75%		3.33%
										
MAXIMIZE - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				55		60		65		70
Reg. Potency		20%		4.36%		4.00%		3.69%		3.43%
Improved Pot.		30%		4.73%		4.33%		4.00%		3.71%
Greater Potency		40%		5.09%		4.67%		4.31%		4.00%
Superior Pot.		50%		5.45%		5.00%		4.62%		4.29%
										
MAXIMIZE + GLOVES OF THE GLACIER - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				51		56		61		66
Reg. Potency		20%		4.71%		4.29%		3.93%		3.64%
Improved Pot.		30%		5.10%		4.64%		4.26%		3.94%
Greater Potency		40%		5.49%		5.00%		4.59%		4.24%
Superior Pot.		50%		5.88%		5.36%		4.92%		4.55%
										
EMPOWER HEALING - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				40		45		50		55
Reg. Potency		20%		4.50%		4.00%		3.60%		3.27%
Improved Pot.		30%		4.88%		4.33%		3.90%		3.55%
Greater Potency		40%		5.25%		4.67%		4.20%		3.82%
Superior Pot.		50%		5.63%		5.00%		4.50%		4.09%
										
EMPOWER HEALING + ENHANCEMENTS - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				36		41		46		51
Reg. Potency		20%		5.00%		4.39%		3.91%		3.53%
Improved Pot.		30%		5.42%		4.76%		4.24%		3.82%
Greater Potency		40%		5.83%		5.12%		4.57%		4.12%
Superior Pot.		50%		6.25%		5.49%		4.89%		4.41%
										
EMPOWER HEALING + ENHANCEMENTS  + LORRIK'S - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				34		39		44		49
Reg. Potency		20%		5.29%		4.62%		4.09%		3.67%
Improved Pot.		30%		5.74%		5.00%		4.43%		3.98%
Greater Potency		40%		6.18%		5.38%		4.77%		4.29%
Superior Pot.		50%		6.62%		5.77%		5.11%		4.59%

CHART INCLUDING STAFF OF THE PETITIONER FROM ABBOT

NO METAMAGIC - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				27		32		36		41
Reg. Potency		20%		4.44%		3.75%		3.33%		2.93%
Improved Pot.		30%		4.81%		4.06%		3.61%		3.17%
Greater Potency	 	40%		5.19%		4.38%		3.89%		3.41%
Superior Pot.		50%		5.56%		4.69%		4.17%		3.66%
										
MAXIMIZE - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				50		54		59		63
Reg. Potency		20%		4.80%		4.44%		4.07%		3.81%
Improved Pot.		30%		5.20%		4.81%		4.41%		4.13%
Greater Potency		40%		5.60%		5.19%		4.75%		4.44%
Superior Pot.		50%		6.00%		5.56%		5.08%		4.76%
										
MAXIMIZE + GLOVES OF THE GLACIER - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				46		50		55		59
Reg. Potency		20%		5.22%		4.80%		4.36%		4.07%
Improved Pot.		30%		5.65%		5.20%		4.73%		4.41%
Greater Potency		40%		6.09%		5.60%		5.09%		4.75%
Superior Pot.		50%		6.52%		6.00%		5.45%		5.08%
										
EMPOWER HEALING - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				36		41		45		50
Reg. Potency		20%		5.00%		4.39%		4.00%		3.60%
Improved Pot.		30%		5.42%		4.76%		4.33%		3.90%
Greater Potency		40%		5.83%		5.12%		4.67%		4.20%
Superior Pot.		50%		6.25%		5.49%		5.00%		4.50%
										
EMPOWER HEALING + ENHANCEMENTS - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				32		37		41		46
Reg. Potency		20%		5.63%		4.86%		4.39%		3.91%
Improved Pot.		30%		6.09%		5.27%		4.76%		4.24%
Greater Potency		40%		6.56%		5.68%		5.12%		4.57%
Superior Pot.		50%		7.03%		6.08%		5.49%		4.89%
										
EMPOWER HEALING + ENHANCEMENTS  + LORRIK'S - Increase Healing per SP										
Mass Cure Spell				Light		Mod		Ser		Crit
Base SP cost				30		35		40		45
Modified SP				31		35		40		44
Reg. Potency		20%		5.81%		5.14%		4.50%		4.09%
Improved Pot.		30%		6.29%		5.57%		4.88%		4.43%
Greater Potency		40%		6.77%		6.00%		5.25%		4.77%
Superior Pot.		50%		7.26%		6.43%		5.63%		5.11%

How to use the charts

I am going to use the two Clerics described above in the following example and compare their efficiencies. Hopefully, by the end of the exercise you will all know how to use these charts.

Both Clerics have all the Life Magic enhancements so that can be thrown out of the discussion. They also contain different levels of Cleric which effects the base amount of the various Cure spells but not any of the modifiers. Criticals have been removed from this comparison.

Empowered Healing Cleric
Superior Potency VI
"Primary Mass Cure" = Cure Moderate Wounds Mass
"Secondary Mass Cure" = Cure Light Wounds Mass
Empower Healing Metamagic Active
All Improved Empower Healing Enhancements
Lorrik's Necklace from the Hound of Xoriat

Maximize Cleric
Superior Potency VI
"Primary Mass Cure" = Cure Moderate Wounds Mass
"Secondary Mass Cure" = Cure Light Wounds Mass
Maximize Metamagic Active
Gloves of the Glacier

The question here isn't who has bigger cures. The Maximize Cleric casts bigger cures with even bigger criticals than the Empowered Healing Cleric. The question is how do their efficiencies compare? The charts are designed to tell you how much bonus healing your getting per SP -or- Bonus%/SP.

Let's look at the Empowered Healing Cleric's Primary mass cure. In order to find her Bonus%/SP I go to the first chart (since neither toon uses the Staff of the Petitioner we will be using the first chart only). Once i'm in the first chart I find the table with the heading "Empower Healing + Enhancements + Lorrik's". I then look at the row titled "Superior Pot." and look at the column titled "Mod". The Bonus%/SP is 5.77%. That means for every Spellpoint the spell Cure Moderate Wounds Mass cost she is getting an additional 5.77% added to the base spell.

Now, let's look at the Maximize Cleric's Primary mass cure. In order to find his Bonus%/SP I go to the first chart. Once I'm in the first chart I find the table with the heading "Maximize + Gloves of the Glacier". I then look at the row titled "Superior Pot." and look at the column titled "Mod". The Bonus%/SP is 5.36%. Again, that means for every Spellpoint the spell Cure Moderate Wounds Mass cost he is getting an additional 5.36% added to the base spell.

Compare Efficiency
Since 5.77% is more bonus healing per SP than 5.36% it is clear that she is more efficient. If you want to compare the efficiency of two characters you need only divide their Bonus%/SP on their "Primary Mass Cure" by each others. In the case of these two clerics I would divide 5.77% / 5.36% which equals 1.0765. Or, you can say she heals approximately 7.7% more efficiently.

Compare Size of Cure
In order to determine this we simply multiply the Bonus%/SP by the modified SP in the chart. For the Empowered Healing Cleric that would be 5.77%/SP * 39 SP = 225. For the Maximize Cleric that would be 5.36%/SP * 56 SP = 300%. The Maximize Cleric's Mass Cures will be larger than the Empowered Healing Cleric's. 300/225 = 1.33 or his cures will be 33% larger on average than the Pure Clerics. These larger heals while being difficult to not overheal are sometimes a great boon in situations where the party is taking big damage.

Calculating HP's Healed Using the Charts and SP Capacity

Below is an example of how to use the charts to calculate everything you wanted to know about healing. Use it to compare gear set-ups etc...

Let's use Cure Moderate Mass which base heals for an average of (2d8+15) = 17-31 HP.

Empower Healing
Assuming complete lorriks and no crits we go to the chart for Superior Potency and Mod. The +%/SP is 5.77% and the SP cost is 39 SP. So the Empowered healer heals for (17-31 HP Base)*(.0577 bonus/sp)*(39 SP)*(1.4 Cleric Devotion IV) = 54 - 97 HP or 75.5 Avg

Maximize Healing
Assuming VoD gloves. The +%/SP from the charts is 5.36% and the SP cost is 56. So the Maximized healer heals for (17-31 HP Base)*(.0536 bonus/sp)*(56 SP)*(1.4 Cleric Devotion IV) = 71 - 130 HP or 100.6 Avg

Spell Point Capacity

Maximize obviously packs a bigger punch. Now let's see how many HP's you can heal with a SP pool of say 2100 SP.

Empower = (2100/39)*75.5 = 4065 HP per affected target on avg.

Maximized = (2100/56)*100.6 = 3772.6 HP per affected target on avg.

Let's double check our work by comparing total healing and healing efficiency.
4065/3772.6 = 1.0775
5.77/5.36 = 1.0765

1.0775/1.0765 = 1.00093 or .093% margin of error... so the math checks out. (This only works when using the same base spell, ie- Cure Moderate)

You CAN check the efficiency of different spells to each other by dividing the total healed per SP pool of one set up to the total healed per SP pool of another set up; but you cannot back check that by just using the chart efficiencies.

Hopefully this will help you figure out some things for your clerics.

Val

[Comfortably]

Nice guide, you should look into different ways to reduce the cost of a heal spell, (ie, what's better maximize or empower healing when it comes to numbers, or add information about things like the Staff of the Petitioner for a -10% to sp cost).

[Valezra]

Nice guide, you should look into different ways to reduce the cost of a heal spell, (ie, what's better maximize or empower healing when it comes to numbers, or add information about things like the Staff of the Petitioner for a -10% to sp cost).

I can dig more into the numbers. Maximize vs Empower efficiency comparison is going to be based more on what Potency item one is using and which spell is being cast. It becomes a bit more complex but definately worth the addition.

I wish I could have received the Staff of the Petitioner last night but at least it went to a guildy.

Val

[Comfortably]

I can dig more into the numbers. Maximize vs Empower efficiency comparison is going to be based more on what Potency item one is using and which spell is being cast. It becomes a bit more complex but definately worth the addition.

I wish I could have received the Staff of the Petitioner last night but at least it went to a guildy.

Val

I'll jump onto one of my clerics in a bit and post the number break down for those feats. I wasn't referring to Empower, I meant Empower Healing, because if you get the necklace from Hound and take the Ap line for reducing the cost of of it, down to a possible 4 points for 50% healing and it works on heal/mass heal next mod, which empower and maximize do not work on.

[Valezra]

I'll jump onto one of my clerics in a bit and post the number break down for those feats. I wasn't referring to Empower, I meant Empower Healing, because if you get the necklace from Hound and take the Ap line for reducing the cost of of it, down to a possible 4 points for 50% healing and it works on heal/mass heal next mod, which empower and maximize do not work on.

I've already calculated this out in excel... just having trouble posting it.

Val

[Valezra]

Okay I've added a fairly comprehensive SP Efficiency chart for you clerics to use out there. It proves that Empower Healing + Enhancements + Lorrik's is still the most efficient way to heal given most of us use Superior Potency VI. Cure Mod Mass (the spell of choice) is approximately 15.4% more efficient than Maximize but only 7.6% more efficient than Maximize + Gloves of the Glacier.

In Mod 9 with Superior Cure Mass Critical this gap is almost made negligible (.8% difference)

Val

[coltsrock]

Great thread here has helped me plan some adjustments in the way I use my heals on my new cleric. Thanks a lot man.

[valorik]

nice guide, I never carried mass mod scrolls, and I usually do fine, but I think I'll start carrying them for ceartain raids/situations now...

[Monkey_Archer]

Good guide.

Although i would have to add that with empower healing costing only 4 sp i never turn it off. Its just too much work constantly toggling it trying to guess whether or not its needed.

Empower healing will always out perform maximise or empower. Even with glacier gloves and no empower healing enhancments thats 21 for 100% vs 10 for 50%.

On a pure cleric maximise is almost always over healing. I would only reccomend it for 13-14 splash clerics in tough situations (like laggy shrouds)

[Nyvn]

1. Avoid topping off the party with your SP. There will be a waste of SP if you do and efficiency is the name of the game when healing these situations. Instead use your Cure Mod Mass scrolls to top off the group.

So true, I'd say let them wand/potion themselves between fights.

1. Lead with a scroll. Heal the lowest hitpoint party member with a Heal Scroll first. There are two reasons for this. The first reason, is that by the time you hit the lowest guy the other healer in the party may already have hit the other guy or two and you saved 100% SP. The second reason, is that often a Heal Scroll (with wand and scroll enhancements) will bring them to 100% health and avoid the need for follow-up curing.

Note, this doesn't apply to fighters, barbarians, warforged, and high hp of any class, mainly dwarves.

B. Maximize (metamagic) Healing:
- Acquire an improved Maximize item. The gloves from the Vision of Destruction Raid is a great choice for this.
- You will almost never turn off Maximize as a Battle Cleric.

When mod 9 comes out Superior Potency IX or at least Superior Devotion IX should be available. Looking at a Superior Potency Mass Critical (the spell of choice IMO in mod 9) you can see that Mazimize + Gloves of the Glacier is almost the same efficiency as Empower Healing + Enhancements + Lorrik's but costs you many AP less.

I love Maximize. I've run with both Empower Healing, and Maximize on my caster cleric. Maximize is slightly less efficient than Empower Healing, but you'll heal for more, and thus less often. I never turn off Maximize, use it on my offensive spells as well =)

[Demoyn]

Wow, you presume much. I throw away scrolls like "used tissue paper"? Please quote me where I said I go through scrolls in any major way?

1. Avoid topping off the party with your SP. There will be a waste of SP if you do and efficiency is the name of the game when healing these situations. Instead use your Cure Mod Mass scrolls to top off the group. <same as a pure cleric>

I suppose technically you didn't say "I throw away scrolls like used tissue paper", but to most sentient beings this statement will mean the same thing. I've clericed a group once or twice in the past three years, and my experience is that groups need topping off after every fight or two. That adds up to "tissue paper".

[Sanjinn]

Very nice guide, thanks for putting it together.