Halfling Marked Healer

[fervidsea]

I know that any cleric with a high wis can heal "end game", however are halfling marked healers still viable, durable endgame builds?

[juniorpfactors]

sure, but all you get is a few heals that you have to hotkey to other buttons, and all your main heal spells and most imortant spells like energy drain/ pumkin head take up just about everything that has quick access in IMHO, and to waist 3 feats, your better off just getting better feats and loading up on spell points end game

jrp

[fervidsea]

Ok, so I would have 3 extra hotkeys taken for free sp, maxed, empowered heals. I dont want to get into the debate on them being better or not better, I understand opinions very, but after leveling I can switch things around to better "maximize" my worth I would assume. Or keep everything the way it is... idk

Dont get me wrong, I have no characters past lvl 4, and frankly I am playing to enjoy myself. However, enjoying the game to me would be needed, wanted and desired to group with at end levels.

I also understand the added durability for the dwarf, with some extra sp, and the king of feats and higher ending wis. But is a marked halfling pure cleric able to keep up, heal as well as them, and maybe, just maybe when the time calls for it, trough out some cc and a mean BB if necessary?

[juniorpfactors]

a mean bb means maximize and empower, and those are must have on any great mass healer IMO, and usually those that like to drop those BB and do some solo like Extend on a cleric.... your going to be really stretching you Feats, the BB wont be very effective until lvl 12-14 since your early feats are going to be dragon marks, or Emp Healing...... its great stuff at low levels, but if you plan on end game content you will end up getting rid of dragon marks for healing purposes in my opinion

its not a deal killer but if it was really better or more popular I would say go for with no regrets, most of us have tried it, and its fun and pretty good up till say level 11 or so, then its delete the toon and go Human for extra feat JUST my opinion


jrp

[fervidsea]

Ok... see what your saying.. one or the other.

So going this way to level...

1 - Least Dragonmark of Healing
3 - Empower Spell
6 - Lesser Dragonmark of Healing
9 - Maximize Spell
12 - Greater Dragonmark of Healing
15 - Quicken Spell
18 - Extend

Like I said because I have no high level toons I figure I can run this and when I get bored or tired of the marks I can add some what? Spell Pen 1 and 2 and Heighten? Only thing I would be missing out is Toughen. Such the life of not being a human I quess.

Can you or another of the more knowledgeable end game healers, chime in to give me a better path to optimize my healing BB dropping experience? For instance I get BB at 9? I would have the extra feats to make it more powerful just not enough to make it fast and last longer?

[Varr]

Here is my opinion which is an unpopular one but addresses your question. There are many types of cleric healers to build........the pure healing cleric being the least popular and less fun for most to play. Buffing and healling.....with support only spells like greater command and comet fall is abrasive to most players understandably.

A quickened blade barrier is a potient weapon.......

If you decide to roll a halfling marked healer.....your strenghts lie in being able to dish out more healing in a variety of ways in a short time than any of your breatern.....your truly build a support specialized healer. Of hand potency....rotating mass cures, heal spell, healing marks, heal scrolls let's you blast heal in a mostly unnecessary speed.

Vorr on Khybar is just that type of build.......I don't find quicken nessesary since it's main advantage is bb casts....my other clerics carry it. Extend is always my level 3 feat....6 min buff are usefull.

I wouldn't suggest this build as your first big build.....it really is specialized in selfless support play.....even I find him blah to play......but if forming a raid I would jump for joy if every cleric joining was exactly this....a halfling marked buffing healbot that's sole porpous is to watch red bars with motherly care and not be distracted by being capabile of other roles or functions.

[fervidsea]

Ok with you so far... So a halfling marked healer is that gimped at dmg spells and offensive casting that one should not even bother... Soloing of any type is not included in his game description? or if he/she does you will be so bored out of your mind you will lose interest and only wish to reroll? lol

[Urguwno]

I know that any cleric with a high wis can heal "end game", however are halfling marked healers still viable, durable endgame builds?

Just to be clear, Wisdom is needed to raise your offensive spell DC's. (Greater Command, Blade Barrier, etc.) It is not needed to be a better healer, per se.

A 20th Cleric with a 19 Wisdom can heal just as well as a 20th Cleric with 30+ Wisdom, albeit with *slightly* less spell points. (The net SP gain is only 29 per 2 points of WIS at level 20, which is a very small portion of your total pool.)

I would encourage you to play around with the dragonmark feats to see if you like them, but also respec into the 2 mental toughness feats to see if you personally get better milage from the versatility of extra spell points and an extra feat.

Also consider that you will be carrying stacks of Heal scrolls by end-game that will seem somewhat inexpensive, so your dragonmarks will basically be 1) saving you some coin and 2) giving you a few in-case-of-emergency heals that are on a different cooldown timer.

In any case, don't sweat it. You can always respec a feat so just play around and see what suits you best... and that may change throughout your career as a Cleric.

The only thing you really have to ask yourself at character creation is if you're comfortable playing as half a man.

[Varr]

It's all shades of grey....any toon can be good....but certain builds are inherently specialized....you give up any feat flexability by taking extend, empower, max, 3 healing marks and one late optional. This game is simply about dealing and soaking damage. It is really easy for five party members to totally focus on applying damage if they have a dedicated healer doing nothing but dealing with soaking the groups damage. This build does it the best (IMO) but that type of healing is boring.

Much of the spcislization in game is overkill and unnessessary and comes with trade off sacrifice.....but if you can dig it.....soaking damage thru party healing specialists sure are fun for barbarians and rogues and the like to run with.

[Samadhi]

1 - Least Dragonmark of Healing
3 - Empower Spell
6 - Lesser Dragonmark of Healing
9 - Maximize Spell
12 - Greater Dragonmark of Healing
15 - Quicken Spell
18 - Extend

That is a perfectly valid setup (although personally I would use the order 1, 18, 6, 12/15, 9, 12/15, 3). The healing marks are not overly useful for endgame raid healing, as someone who just rolled and FvS with marks that I have been playing nonstop (except for hero tank method - then free heals are free heals). What it is good for is when shortmanning quests where you are point manning; BBing piles of mobs; it gives you easier scattered oneshot heals to keep the party up at the same time. This is not something mastered quickly b/c some of the timers are odd - but for this purpose I have found it greatly useful. It is also handy underbeholder magic or to cure yourself of effects like feeblemind; although these situations do not come up as much.

Long story short, I really don't recommend the dragonmarks (at high levels) if you are making a healbot. I do recommend if you planning on doing a lot of solo or otherwise "risky" playstyles with him.

[fervidsea]

Thanks for the replies... again like I said I am new, but love playing the healer in all the MMO's Ive played. But I want to be good at everything, lol.

That is why I picked this. I can run the marks and If I don't like them switch them out and try something else. However I have no idea how to change the marks...

I figured with a Halfing that is "marked", if that doesn't work then I can go OC with only a few changes of feats. Still being able to "heal-bot" but being more useful at OC. IDK... Again I'm assuming a lot. I'm assuming I will be able to change a few feats and be more "focused" on OC but still be able to heal my rear off. I hate not knowing what to do or how to change but I cant until I get there I guess.

At the end of the day, I hate spending my "free" time, leveling a character, only to find out that he is gimped, My ocd kicks in and I cant sleep trying to figure stuff out... This is build number 22 for me. Humans, elfs, dwarfs, drow and now halflings. I unlocked 32 points just to have it. Paying for VIP, so that I'm not limited to where I can go and quest.

Anyone good at wizards and sorcerers... having the same problem there, lol.

[amyndris]

1 - Least Dragonmark of Healing
3 - Empower Spell
6 - Lesser Dragonmark of Healing
9 - Maximize Spell
12 - Greater Dragonmark of Healing
15 - Quicken Spell
18 - Extend

1 - Extend
3 - Least Dragonmark of Healing
6 - Lesser Dragonmark of Healing
6 - Feat Swap Extend for Empower Healing
9 - Greater Dragonmark of Healing
12 - Empower Spell
15 - Maximize Spell
18 - Quicken

I took Extend before Least because you really don't have any problems doing quests from level 1 to 3 and having 1 minute buffs annoys me way more. By level 6, 6 min buffs are "good enough" for most dungeon runs so you can swap it out. You won't get 42 second Blade Barriers, but usually things are dead by then anyways, so it's not a big deal.

You'll want Empower Heal because that's the only Metamagic that supports Heal which is really, really good.

I took Empower before Maximize because Maximize is more mana intensive (25 versus 15); at lower levels, it's harder to Maximize a ton of spells without running out of SPs.

I actually have a lot of fun with my Dragonmarked Halfling Cleric. Counting all of the free healing you get with metamagics, you end up with about 1280 SP of healing for those 3 feats. Compare that to Mental Toughness + IMT for an extra 210 SP. Dragonmark is a great deal.

Even on Elite, I'm usually able to heal an entire instance with only minimal usage of my mana for healing purposes. I can keep the entire party up with just Dragonmarked heals with the rare exception of 1 or 2 Mass CMW (CMW because it's level 6 and is affected by Potency VI items) when our melee get together and eat a giant Flame Strike or something. That leaves me a ton of mana to play with other things. I've gotten multiple comments from people that I group with that I give out more buffs than any other cleric they play with; it's standard that everyone starts the dungeon with Shield of Faith, Aid, Magic Circle against Evil, Spell Resist, Freedom of Movement, Resist Energy: Fire, Protection against Energy: All. Death Ward, Neutralize Poison, Resist Energy: Other and Stalwart Pact are other buffs that get thrown on as needed. I usually spend about 30%-40% of my mana on buffs at the start of a dungeon.

I spend the rest of my SP doing my best imitation of Norelco's rotating blade shaver in the dungeon. It's a lot of fun never having to worry about mana usage, and just being able to throw spells around willy nilly without a concern in the world. Sure I'm not able to land spells like Destruction as often as someone who took Spell Pen and ISP, but conversely, he has to worry about sucking down mana potions, using wands or which buffs to leave off while I just keep happily stabbing away with my paralyzation dagger (They eventually roll a 1! I promise!)